missionaryMAC

(FYI it is snowing as I write this...it's a slushy mess right now but they're predicting 3-5 inches total overnight!!! Scenic Drive is closed and UTEP cancelled all its night classes!!!) There is already an entry titled that, or something very similar, from November 2008, but here is another one because for the 2nd consecutive year, Chris and I spent 3 days at Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville, IL, fellowshipping with and learning from people who do the same thing we do. Most of the curriculum was similar to last year, although I did see things a bit differently since I had almost a year of servant event coordinating under my belt instead of not actually having started my job yet. A lot of the workshops I feel like Chris and I could have led since the conference is predominately for organizations that only host a handful of events each year, and we hold like 40 something, but hearing other people's input, problem solving techniques, PR strategies, etc. is something that c...

Chris and I like to call Sparks "My Town," like the song by Montgomery Gentry since we have worked on so many houses there and befriended so many of the people. But I guess the original "My Town" would be Kirkwood (St. Louis), MO, where I grew up, although Chris liked to point it out everytime I didn't know where or what something was, which was a lot. That's why God invented Mapquest ;) I think I managed to be an OK tour guide though, especially since there a TON of free things to do there. Here is a sampling about our adventures: Our first full day in St. Louis started off with toasted ravioli on The Hill, St. Louis's Italian neighborhood. It hit me when I was captioning my pictures that this picture is of a Hill on the Hill! Later on we toured the Anheuser Busch brewery, then after dinner we went to Ted Drewes for the BEST frozen custard. AB had all their Christmas decorations up and it was so pretty! Me and my friend Erica, who drove up from Springfi...

My early birthday/Christmas present from Chris...Freddy (that is the name he came with and I think I'm going to keep it unless anyone else has a brilliant suggestion)! Last night he slept in my bed with me all curled up next to my leg...until I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, then he ran and hid! He's kind of skittish but if I pick him up and pet him he will start purring and stay wherever I put him. It's like he forgets who I am and then he remembers! Hi kitty! He's about 3 1/2 months old and he has a sister named Snowball. I felt bad for separating them but the lady said that Snowball is getting adopted like today or tomorrow. What's in the recycling box? Scoping out his new territory. I'm thinking this is going to become Freddy's chair. Until next time, blessings!

Chris and I left the morning after the Watoto concert (Friday, November 6)--before the choir did actually--for St. Louis. The actual reason for our visit was to attend the LCMS Servant Event Leadership Conference, but since LCMS was paying, we arrived a few days early and stayed a few days late. This gave us the chance to see my family and friends and do some sightseeing around my hometown (more on that later), but also to squeeze in some PR for the mission. Our first opportunity came on Sunday, when Chris and I were featured as a "Ministry Minute" at my home church, St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Des Peres, MO: we got to address the congregation during the 3-4 minutes it took to collect the offering. The meat of the message, which I wrote and delivered, revolved around the song, "God of This City." I only quoted the chorus due to time, but here are the full lyrics: You're God of this city, you're the King of these people, you're the Lord of this nati...

It's been a whirlwind past 2 weeks...I can't believe we're halfway through November already. Watch for several entries this week to fill you in on everything that's happened both around the mission, and on Chris's and my trip to St. Louis for the LCMS Servant Event Leadership Conference. Our Reformation luncheon and joint worship service took place on October 31, then 3 days later, YLM hosted it's first ever golf tournament at Vista Hills Country Club. It went well overall; everyone from here kind of has the attitude of, "Not too shabby for our first go at it, but now we have 365 days to learn from our mistakes and make next year's even better." Three days after that, San Pablo received a visit from the Watoto Children's Choir, which is what I want to share more about below. I got an e-mail from the director in late October asking if they could perform here, maybe 2 weeks before they wanted to come. Not having a clue what it was (although now t...

We wanna see! We wanna see! We wanna see Jesus lifted high! I feel like that song was playing on Rosy's boom box ALL week as Chris and I worked with the 4th and final MOST Ministries team of the year to hold eyeglass clinics at San Lucas and Cristo Rey. It works though, huh? I also thought it was pretty fitting that the whole service on Sunday the 24th was themed around the story of Jesus healing the blind man. I didn't notice that at the San Pablo English service; I only made the connection after I heard it in Spanish. We started off the week by going to church at San Lucas on Sunday, making sure we were there early to set up. That didn't turn out to be very difficult, since Mexico's Daylight Savings Time began a week earlier than ours. That meant it was always an hour earlier there so we left when we normally do for services and got there with a little over an hour to spare. It also meant that we could sleep in a little later than normal all week since in order to sta...