missionaryMAC

If you haven't noticed already, the NEW www.ylm.org has been launched! After months of hard, often tedious, work on the part of myself and many others, I am pretty proud of the result. The new site is fully up-to-date with the most current information and will hopefully prove to be more visually attractive and easier to navigate than the previous page. We're also integrating the WordPress blog and the website into one so that there isn't a separate page for news articles as opposed to permanent content. Some other new features are a section for people seeking to benefit from the services we provide and, eventually, the entire thing in Spanish. That's most likely one of my next assignments during my next stretch of down time. Among my contributions were some of the mission church/site pages under Where We Work , the entire Servant Event section under either Get Involved or What We Do, and the addition of almost all the products and their descriptions to the YLM Shop . I...

Good morning. Got back from a 6 am airport run a little bit ago, so I have been getting some work done on my computer and I figured now would be a good time to start on one of the blogs that is swimming around in my head. This one is about a servant event from Our Saviour's Lutheran Church in Chippewa Falls, WI. Although they have lodged at YLM in the past, this year they were with another El Paso church called Cristo Rey (not the YLM affiliated one in Juarez), but were able to spend 2 days working here. It was a good way to ease into the busyness of spring break season. Their jobs were to finish clearing out and power-wash the building on campus where we had a fire in April 2009, and then to paint the interior with Kilz (like primer to eliminate any mold/residual smoky smell). They had to do the first part on Monday and the second part on Friday so that the building would have ample time to dry thoroughly. The group's work was the next step in the plan that was rec...

I am officially approved for a SENTRI pass! Chris is too...Genaro's application is still pending review. But, that means that as soon as our I.D. cards come in the mail, we can start using the express lanes on the bridges (or maybe just one bridge, we're not sure yet)! I think they'll probably arrive sometime next week or the week after, but we're scrutinizing the mail every day just in case. The first step was filling out an application online. Then, I had to check back everyday, and once the status was changed to "Conditionally Approved," I had to schedule an in-person interview with a CBP officer. Mine was this past Tuesday at 11:45 am...er, 2:00 pm (government office)...so over the weekend I made sure I had all the required documents together in a file folder. Part of why it took so long after I got there and signed in on Tuesday was that the computer system was down, but when I FINALLY got called back, my officer pretty much asked me everything that was o...

My Saturday was dedicated to YLM's annual volunteer recognition banquet, Have a Heart. It was held the week AFTER Valentine's Day in order to coordinate with the quarterly board meeting, but the tables were still decorated with red confetti and candy hearts :) For the 3rd year in a row, I was the sous chef. It was a joy to cook in such a CLEAN kitchen (see my last post)! I helped Chris, Paige ( one of the Snowbird Servants), and Paige's daughter Amanda make lemon pepper chicken, mac n' cheese, biscuits and green beans, with sheet cakes/peanut butter fudge cakes (well, all we did was slice those...) for dessert. The servant event group from a suburb of Albuquerque that usually comes to help wasn't able to make it, so things were simultaneously calmer and more hectic than in the past, both due to a lack of teenagers! The menu wasn't overly complicated, but we did have a slight problem cooking the chicken fast enough in the industrial kitchen so at one point there ...

One of those TV shows where a celebrity chef bails a failing restaurant out of the hole in a couple of days, or what happened in YLM building #6 (industrial kitchen/dining hall) last week! The health department showed up and failed us on a number of counts, so the decision was made to close the Hot Meal Program for 3 days (thankfully there were no servant events that needed to be fed) while a crew of volunteers did everything short of scrubbing the place down with a toothbrush. I didn't make the connection at the time, but one of the RVers pointed out to me that, like the plumbing adventures a couple weeks back, God totally ordained this to happen while they were all here to do a majority of the work! BEFORE: AFTER: That's a new stainless steel table! This closet is my favorite part...who knew it was so big??? Anybody got some white gloves? Until next time, blessings!

YLM's "RV park" is full this year! The mission loves hosting the "Excellent Eight" (the pack has grown...they were formerly the "Super Six") each winter because they are such dedicated workers, and I love having the extra company and activity for a few months. Many of these retirees have become close friends as I am now in my 3rd year here. This year, however, there has been some friendly competition brewing over how the RV pads are numbered. In reality, they're not, but the Snowbirds seem to disagree on whether Site 1 is closest to the dorm or if that's Site 4 and Site 1 is closest to the church. Chris and I have stayed completely neutral...yeah right! (that used to say RV no 1) But if anybody asks, you didn't see a thing! Until next time, blessings!

I learned early on in my time here that plumbing is in aisle 13 at Lowe's. This is what aisle 13 looks like on a weekend during a city-wide water emergency! Until next time, blessings! P.S. Thanks for the prayers--all water has been fully restored to the YLM campus and the boil order has been rescinded!

It's official...Chris and I are going to Canada! Lots of groups talk about how cool it would be if they could fly us in for a visit/to do some in person PR for the mission at their schools/churches. Most of the time it winds up being just talk, but Bethel Lutheran Church in Sherwood Park, Alberta was serious when they brought up the subject during their servant event in August. Today we got a phone call from the pastor and we're leaving on April 13!!! Our schedule includes the following: 4/14: presentation at Concordia Lutheran Seminary in Edmonton, meeting with the group from there that is planning a May YLM servant event 4/15: playing tourists in Edmonton, including the West Edmonton Mall (maybe the biggest one in the world?)! 4/17: speak about the mission during the sermon at 3 services, help with youth fundraiser In the meantime, we are still dealing with the aftermath of our recent Canada-like weather in El Paso. The whole city is amid a "water emergency" until 1...

Yes, Snowpocalypse 2011 hit El Paso too! We only got about an inch of snow that's mostly gone by now, but our main issue has been the COLD. It arrived on Tuesday night, and has been a fixture since then. Two nights ago we hit the second lowest temperature EVER for El Paso, -4. I think it's on its way out now though--we're supposed to break freezing today and then next week we'll be back in the mid 50's/low 60's for highs. Temperatures that low in the desert are causing 2 main problems, so schools/city offices have been and are STILL closed, even though the roads are perfectly clear: 1. Blackouts. One literally just happened as I am typing this! El Paso Electric claims they weren't prepared for the surge in power usage that resulted from everybody trying to keep warm (Do they live under a rock?), so they've been systematically issuing rolling blackouts throughout the city so as not to stress the grids so much. It's been our turn 5 or 6 times over the ...

We only get one or maybe 1 1/2-2 this week since it's gonna get COLD (for El Paso: high of 28 and low of 12 on Wednesday, snow flurries likely). So we rearranged the project schedule for the Bella Vista Lutheran servant event (1 couple, Ron and Kay), and I accompanied Genaro and Ron to Juarez to repair a roof today! We finished quicker than we were expecting to because we didn't have to tear off all of the old stuff--some we could lay new right on top of--and we had bonus help from one of the homeowners. That turned out to be a good thing since it clouded over and got windy. This was the 2nd straight servant event (Mayer Lutheran HS was the 1st) that YLM was working very near a Casas Por Cristo group. My initial reaction is always that they are intruding on our territory, so I always have to remind myself that we are partnering with some of the same people for the glory of the same God. Two of the guys today came over to say hi at about noon. We talked...

All of the above are fancy web design terms that I don't really know the meaning of but that I literally dreamt about last night since I spent all day yesterday adding content to our new site, and most of today following the staff meeting. After an unintended hiatus on all of our parts...oops...we've re-launched our campaign that started in September to get the new and improved www.ylm.org up and running. It's starting to really come together. Mostly I stopped before because I couldn't format the photo galleries like I wanted them to be, but we downloaded a new plug-in (whatever that is) that allows me to be slightly more creative, so after teaching myself how to use it yesterday I have been going to town! Other highlights of my life since my last post (yeah, this is one of those "I haven't put up a blog in awhile so I will even though I don't have anything in particular to write about" posts!): --DONE with Harry Potter! I have the first movie in my po...

Well I got my LBT application on Friday. There is a 9 pg. long document that includes demographic info, education & employment history, references, and info on health, financial responsibilities, cross-cultural experience, etc. I also have to write an autobiography--250 words on each of 6 topics--Family Life (birth-high school), College Experience, Employment Experiences, Marriage and Children (???), Christian Experiences, and General Life Attitude. So far all I've done is the easy questions on the 9 pager. I have to think about the answers to the rest, stuff like what I consider to be my greatest strengths and weaknesses. I am giving myself about a year because it's a fairly involved application process, and that way if I'm not accepted or decide LBT isn't for me I have plenty of time to pursue a back-up plan. At this point that would probably be teaching Spanish, who knows where. I've never wanted to teach with my degree but lately I have had a couple of exper...

Not that anyone ever likes to leave anything unfinished, but two of the guys from the Mayer Lutheran group were hardworking types who were seriously not content to leave with only of the houses at a move-in ready stage. They had both been thinking it, so as soon as one said something about staying 2 extra days to finish things up, the other was immediately in. Shawn and his family had even driven down separately from the charter bus, so his family went back on the bus and Allan, who had come with the group on the bus, drove back with Shawn. I had the pleasure of driving them to Anapra on Monday and Tuesday and pitching in to help however I could. It was a very different dynamic with just the 3 of us versus with 30 some odd others to keep track of: tranquil, although we worked, worked, worked--a full day on Monday and 1/2 day on Tuesday since I had a meeting beginning at 4 pm. All 3 of the casas are ready for their new occupants now! A spilled bucket of various kinds of nails...not a go...