missionaryMAC

The June 2011 servant event group from Trinity Lutheran Church in Centralia, IL, painted the entire interior of Iglesia Luterana Santisima Trinidad. Pepe chose beige for the bottom half and blue for the top half of the sanctuary, to mimic land and sky. He also wanted clouds on the triangular sections created on the front and back walls by the peaked roof, but Trinity wound up not having time to add them. So, someone with a pretty flexible schedule who enjoys doing artsy things as a hobby was needed. Know anyone like that? I sketched outlines first. Back view, close-up. What people will see when they walk in. What people will see as they exit. Pepe thinks I'm quite the artist. He also pointed out that I've left my mark on the church now, kind of like the lady who painted the murals. I might be leaving in 3 months, but I'll be a part of the congregation in spirit even when I'm gone! Until next time, blessings!

Last Thursday night, a group of us from the YLM office and a few other friends/relations were privileged to attend a Casting Crowns concert! It's not often that a big name band performs in a market like El Paso, but this concert actually happened to be the kick-off of a 40 city tour promoting their newest album, "Come to the Well," that comes out on 10/18. Being the first night, there were a few hitches, like the lead singer forgetting the words to one of the songs! After a long instrumental interlude, he said, "This part of the song is really cool, but I forgot it." At first I was irked, but it also kind of endeared me to the performers onstage as fellow imperfect humans. Looking back, it was one of my favorite moments of the night! Before the main act took the stage, there were 3 opening acts that were all excellent I thought: Lindsey McCall, The Afters, and Sanctus Real. During one of the Sanctus Real songs a music video was played on the screens that include...

This blog covers the week after I got back from CA/Houston. First off, I felt like I was in the kitchen ALL week between 2 potlucks and a breakfast meeting where I was in charge of goodies. I made Three Bean Salad for an office potluck (diaper shower for Damian's new baby boy), lemon blueberry muffins (below) and granola for the Thrivent board, and chocolate chip cookies for a church potluck last Sunday. The church potluck was in honor of the CTCR (Commission on Theology and Church Relations) immigration conference that was held in El Paso. You can read more about that in my September newsletter that will go out this week. All of the participants attended a bilingual mariachi service at San Pablo, with lunch to follow. I chauffeured some of the out-of-towners to and from their hotel, and wound up getting another St. Louis based job lead out of the deal! Rev. Carlos Hernandez, the pastor who preached at Stephen's ordination and installed him as COO of YLM, asked me during lunch ...

The second leg of my whirlwind trip led me to the other side of the Lone Star state: Houston. Two more of my high school friends, John and Linda, are currently living and working there. I got in around 2:30, and went hiking at a local park with John. Then it was back to his place to wait for Linda, who came when she got off work. We had Mexican for dinner, although I ordered quail to mix it up a bit since I eat Mexican all the time. Don't see that very often, if ever, but it was delicious! We walked off dinner by paying a visit to the Waugh Bridge bat colony. The bridge is (unintentionally) the perfect habitat for a certain species of bat, and they take to the skies every evening at sundown! The black patches in the sunset are bats flying off in search of food! The bridge isn't very far from John's apartment, so we spent the rest of our evening there--playing cards, reminiscing about high school (we watched our senior class video that includes all of us introducing ou...

The first leg of my recent travels took me to California--the furthest west I have ever been. Marie, Philip, and I drove for 12 1/2 hours last Tuesday to get there. We debated driving through the night, but elected to go the next day because we wouldn't really be good for much after a red-eye roadtrip. Plus I was still spending time with them, albeit on I-10W in the confines of their Cadillac Catera. My first California experience was at about 10:00 pm the night we got in, at In-n-out Burger. It's a California and Arizona joint that is the best fast food burger I have ever had. Their menu consists of about 5 items, but there is this not-so-secret secret menu too. For instance, per Chris's recommendation, I ordered mine "animal style:" grilled onions, pickles, and extra 1000 island dressing-esque sauce. Their burger wrappers have Bible verses on them too! "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in an...