Adventures with Marie and Philip

Stories and pictures from my week of playing tour guide for Marie and Philip...

And the kitten! One of the CIS students found a kitten, or rather the kitten found her, when she fell out of the tree in the middle of campus and was bleeding from the nose. Her name is Angelita
("little angel") because she fell from the sky! She spent a couple nights in the dorm and one at my house (after we tried to release her but she showed up on my doorstep) being fed and nursed back to health before Marie, Philip, and I took her to the Humane Society last Saturday morning.

My guess is she was adopted right away because she's so darn adorable! Freddy did not agree; he hissed and growled at the invader, who seemed pretty unaffected by his disdain!

Marie and I at El Paso Saddleblanket. Like my new kicks? No, I didn't really buy them since they were like $249.

Like White Sands, Hueco Tanks is another place you kind of have to take visitors to this area. Consequently, I have now been there 7 times! It's awesome every time though. In fact, part of the servant event from Bethel Lutheran Church in Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada is there right now. Here is a picture of some Native American pottery shards our tour guide found and set aside.

Check out how much water there is! You can tell it's the rainy season.

You read about this if you read my last newsletter, but here is a photo of the "Speaking Rock" that I took instead of one I found on Google ;) It's a pictograph symbolizing that there was water nearby, and the logo/namesake of the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo's casino.

Right below this sign, which reads "WATTER HEAR," there is a hueco ("hollow") connected to an underground water table. It has held water for as long as man has been on this earth except for last month, when it dried up because of our extreme drought!

At the National Border Patrol Museum, the only museum in the nation dedicated to the Border Patrol.

This ladder, used by someone to illegally enter the U.S., was found recently (aka while I've been in El Paso) near the intersection of Loop 375 & Yarbrough!

Marie and I in the Border Patrol Jeep.

Philip, Marie, and I on the Border Patrol jet-ski.

Sunday we went to a worship service at Iglesia Luterana Santisima Trinidad. Judging by their smiles, Marie made a new friend!

Marie and Philip at Santisima.

On Monday I put them to work! The Bethel servant event had 3 worksites; I was assigned to a house build in Mexico so they came along!

Marie liked the siding nails better than the framing ones!

Toasting the end of a great day and a great week with our Mexican sodas!

As you can see, they got a good taste of both El Paso and Juarez. I loved just spending time with them and catching up even when we weren't touring the borderland, but I also loved showing them what I do and where I go day in and day out. I talk to Marie all the time and tell her everything about my life--she's probably seen lots of pictures too--but nothing gives someone the context they really need to understand your life until they see it in person. It was so meaningful to let them in on a place that is such a huge part of the fabric of who I am now. I took them to the airport at 4:30 am on Tuesday morning. Currently they are in Guyana visiting another missionary friend of theirs, but I am so looking forward to their return on September 5, when I'll drive back to Riverside with them and then spend a few days in Southern CA!

Until next time, blessings!