missionaryMAC

[Before you read this, make sure you look at the Happy 5th of July! blog which also talks about Immanuel, Belvidere's week, since I added a couple of new pictures.] It's 8 am and I've already been to the airport twice. That's it for today though, today's incoming group is driving from Sugar Land, TX. The group from Flushing, MI, is going to Carlsbad Caverns today, my family is still in town, Chris's parents got in on Thursday, we have to scout out a project and go to Lowe's today (they're probably worried since I haven't been in 2 days), and then Panchis's daughter Gaby's quinceanera is tonight. In a little while, Chris's mom is going to make both of our families French toast for breakfast, so I figure now is a good time to blog about the rest of Immanuel, Belvidere's week. Theirs is an intergenerational family trip, similar to my first experience at YLM. We built a house for a family that belongs to Cristo Rey: a young mother Sandra...

Today is quite possibly the single busiest day of servant event-ness in 2010. I counted 55 volunteers staying either here or at San Lucas in Anapra tonight. My brain hurts and I am beat from being pulled in many different directions all day, and what am I doing? Blogging, go figure! I had to share this though, since I love the random things that occur in the course of any given day here. This one--the arrival of 800 pairs of shoes--happened to be planned, although that's not always the case. Gary and Marilyn Wenzel from St. Paul Lutheran Church in Chicago, IL, drove this red truck down on Monday, LOADED with shoes. A servant event from their church is coming the first week in August to build a new storage warehouse at Santisima Trinidad and conduct a shoe clinic, so the couple, who is not even coming on the servant event, volunteered to take a trip to El Paso in lieu of making the church pay to ship the shoes down. They had to arrive ahead of time so that we can start sending them ...

and a now 1 year old cat (as of July 2nd according to his adoption papers) that still has some pretty crazy antics! I hope you like these pictures as much as I do...it is an appropriate time to post them since my official 1st 18-month term would end in a couple of days (July 15 if I am doing my math right, even though I wouldn't have ditched them in the middle of the summer), and I had neither a goddaughter nor a cat when I arrived here. I love them both dearly and still have not regretted for a minute that I essentially doubled my initial commitment! Yes that's a CARDINALS game she is watching! Freddy plotting an attack on the star garland above my bedroom doorway. Check out that vertical! Until next time, blessings!

In all seriousness, happy belated Independence Day to you all. I had a great day enjoying God's beautiful creation, America's pasttime, and of course fireworks! I almost celebrated a new holiday though...the 5th of July: My day started off with church--which I really liked actually; we sang lots of patriotic hymns--and then the group (Immanuel Lutheran Church in Belvidere, IL (or TX if you're Pastor Heimer introducing them during church...even though I wrote "Illinois" and not even just "IL" on the Post-It note reminder I always give him)) wanted to do something touristy. We were having trouble finding things that were open, especially guided tours, because of the holiday, so eventually we settled on putzing around at Franklin Mountains State Park. It turned out to be tons of fun! We took a picnic lunch--I learned that coolers have rulers on top of them for measuring fish--and then a bunch of us hiked to this "cave." It was actually a 6 ft. or ...

It's currently Tuesday of the 2nd week of my midsummer "break" that I kind of wish I didn't have and kind of really like a lot. There were never any servant events scheduled for this week, but there were 3 for last week at one point until they all cancelled. So, it went from being the busiest week of the summer, to hardcore planning time for what are now the busiest two weeks of the summer! It's been an ongoing process, but one day last week Chris and I sat down and figured out exactly what is happening each day from July 10-24: who is going where, when, and in what vehicle(s). Here is a list of everything we had to keep in mind: 1. servant event from 7/10-7/17 2. servant event from 7/17-7/24 3. servant event from 7/14 (Wednesday)-7/21 (Wednesday) (half are staying and working in El Paso; the other half are staying and working in Anapra, 4 people are arriving a day early) 4. San Pablo VBS 5. a lady coming from Seward, NE, to help with San Pablo VBS 6. a pastor fro...

From East to West is s fitting title for my blog about University (Purdue is the University) Lutheran Church, seeing as though it was the theme song of their African-themed VBS, and because one of their participants was a visiting scholar from Harbin, China. The group actually did quite a bit more than VBS, although the 305 total children (94 unique) they saw took up the bulk of their time when you include prep time. We were a little shocked to see attendance DOUBLE from Monday to Tuesday, but it held stead in the high 60's/low 70's for the rest of the week, even the day of Mexico's World Cup game vs. France. I didn't have the heart to tell them they were actually pointing from West to East! My job was registration. Every day but Friday (fiesta!!!), I assigned each child a certain animal, which corresponded to their lesson for that day. Rachel (from China) was my helper. She is just beginning to learn the Christian faith and was unsure for a long time whether or not she...