teaching

This Sunday was my first time teaching any lesson in Spanish to a group of children. I'm used to teaching, and I'm used to speaking Spanish, but combining the two is another matter. On Sunday afternoon I taught the Bible story, taken out of the book of Ezra, in Huejotzingo. Other than the fact that two children fell asleep and one was about to fall asleep, it went okay (the two sleepers are about three years old). The attendance on Sunday afternoons has held at about ten, although which children attend is not consistent. Please continue to pray for these children and their parents.

In PCS, my students recently finished their literature books, so we began reading Number the Stars, a book set in World War II. Other than one student who has an avid interest in the World War II, the children knew nothing about the war, so I am having to try to tread the delicate balance between telling them too little and overwhelming them with the ugliness. So far they are enjoying the book and the discussions. In two weeks we have Easter break, and then shortly after that they will be taking the standardized tests that every child in the United States also has to take. We really have very little time left of the school year.

Abraham continues to have a mountain of homework from the seminary. He has to fit this in to the schedule of teaching PE at PCS four days a week, tutoring Spanish with four students (including my mom via Skype), leading the Huejotzingo mission, and working at the seminary to help pay his tuition. We also lead the pre-teen group at church on Wednesday night where Abraham leads the AWANA games beforehand, and I keep score. With this schedule, there are many times when he stays up very late at night. Please keep him in your prayers.

It's not all work, work, work. We spend time together goofing off, too. For example, my Korean student gave me chopsticks, and when I made stir-fry, I brought them out to use. I had also heated tortillas and told Abraham, "You can use chopsticks or you can eat the semi-Chinese food with chopsticks, but I don't think you can do both." He figured out a way to do both, so I had to try eating totopos with chopsticks.

Abraham will have two weeks off for Easter, starting next week. I have the week after Easter off, so we'll have that week to relax together. Wonderful blessing!

Market Day

Fresh-cut flowers in one market shop






Get your fresh fish!














Sausage, cheese, other processed products












A man transporting a slab of meat from one stall to another




















A very efficient tortilla-making machine

















Abraham and I do as much of our food shopping as possible in the market near his mother's house. We can buy fresh, well priced fruits, meats, and vegetables for ourselves and for Six and Ken as well. Today we went, and I remembered to take my camera to record some of the sights of the place. It's always colorful and generally well filled with people.

It never ceases to amaze me when we go how much color and variation there is, especially in the fruits and vegetables. One time it struck me: God could have created monochrome fruits and vegetables, but in his wonderful creativity, he lavished color, texture, and shape to make each unique and beautiful. There's nothing quite like the tempting market displays to make me pause and admire the creativity of our God.

Rain

Normally this is the dry season in Puebla, a time when plants shrivel and dusty debris blows through the streets. This winter is unusual, however. On and off we have had rain, and two weeks ago the rain fell steadily for 24 hours. While our area has suffered no damage, many people in Mexico City and Michoacan have lost homes and livelihoods. There have also been several deaths.

There is more rain predicted for this week, but today is bright and sunny. When the clouds clear, we have a beautiful view of our surrounding, snow-covered volcanoes.





In class, although it is nowhere near Thanksgiving, the history book has begun teaching about the Pilgrims and Puritans. Last Friday the students made butter and and johnny cakes. They really enjoyed the experience and wanted to make more to eat.

Next week they will be in Spiritual Emphasis week, a time when the elementary children stay overnight from Saturday until Tuesday at a conference area. They participate in chapels and other activities. Many of the children are excited to see friends from the two other schools that also attend. From Tuesday afternoon to Friday, the junior and high school students attend the camp. Pray for the kids, that they will stay healthy, enjoy the time, and learn more of God.

In Huejotzingo, attendance has been regular. Some of the children and their parents came to Dios es Amor on Valentine's Day for the potluck and games. Abraham recently finished teaching from the book about Israel's captivity, and this coming Sunday he will begin the book that teaches about the post-captivity. Please continue to pray for the children and their parents in Huejotzingo and also pray that we will know whether God would have us move out there and if so, that he would provide the finances.

Pray for Abraham's and my strength and health as we work with very full schedules. We continue to spend lots of time together which is a wonderful blessing, but we both are often tired. Abraham is teetering on the edge of a cold, and he certainly doesn't need to be sick!

Tamales for Haiti

At Puebla Christian School, the third and fourth grade class made and sold desserts in order to donate money to Haiti relief efforts. My students also wanted to help and suggested making desserts too. We decided, however, to take a field trip on Friday to my mother-in-law's house so that she could teach them how to make tamales. I asked the kids if they'd ever made tamales before, and not one of them had.
Our only snag was that the school suburban broke down over the weekend and still wasn't repaired by Friday. One parent volunteered to drive us, and I talked with other parents after school on Thursday to find one other driver. At the last minute, we had our transporation.

We arrived later than we had planned to, so the kids went right to work. There was plenty of veggie chopping, chili cleaning, onion peeling, and corn husk inspecting for all of them to do. They worked steadily until noon when finally the tamales were ready to cook. At that time the kids ate their lunches, and then they had a short language arts lesson.

Fortunately, the tamales cooked faster than we had thought they might, and they were done just when one parent returned to Six's house to take us to school. The kids spent the half-hour before school let out making posters to advertise their wares. Parents began buying immediately, and within 15 minutes, all 60 tamales were sold. The fifth and sixth grade class raised $51.14 to send to Haiti. On Monday they will vote on where to send the donation.

the month of January

Nine days ago, we had hail: unseasonable and unexpected and cold. Now we are back to Puebla's generous sunshine and dry, dry, dry.

In December, Manuel and Ruth asked Abraham and I if we would be willing to take over the intermedios at church on Wednesday night - the group of kids approximately the same age as my students at PCS. We agreed to give it a try and started at the beginning of this month. Our group has six members at this point. We are taking them through the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes to study Solomon's choices, our choices, and how to wait for everything in its time. Soon we'll have them over to our house to watch the movie El Estudiante, play games and, of course, eat.

At school, I showed my students two brief news items about the earthquake in Haiti, and asked them, "Where was God? Why did he let this happen?" They concluded, with little prompting from me, that God had not lost control but that there were many reasons why he could have let the quake happen.

On Friday we will be driving to my mother-in-law's house to make tamales. This will be the kids' first time making them, and they are excited. Their excitement is also because they will be selling the tamales after school and sending the money to Haiti.

Please continue to pray for Dios es Amor. The pregnancies of the two young women continue to sadden the people of the congregation, and the young women themselves are struggling. One of the couples married in a civil ceremony on Saturday.

Pray for Abraham and I as we are looking into buying land in Huejotzingo. We would like to live there permanently so that we can work more than just on Sundays. There are so many needs among the people.

2010

Our two and a half weeks of Christmas vacation end Thursday. It will be difficult going back to an early wake-up alarm, especially since the weather is quite cold, and crawling out of a warm bed at 6:15 isn't fun. It's always an adjustment for the teachers and students.

In the weeks before Christmas, Abraham and I went to Huejotzingo on Saturday as well as Sunday to help the kids make piñatas and practice their reader's theater of A Christmas Carol. The actual performance on Dec. 20th was far from professional, but it was the first time any of the kids had done anything like a reader's theater. The man who had agreed to read Scrooge didn't come, so Ken read his part. A few other more minor characters also didn't come, but Abraham and I read their parts.

After their performance, we read the Christmas story from Luke 2, and then it was time for breaking the piñatas. We had four small ones, and every child had the chance to beat on them. Every time one broke, there was a mad scramble for the candy and tangerines, and everyone collected a satisfying stack of sweets.


On the 24th, Abraham and I went to the home of his sister and brother-in-law. It was the first time for either of us to participate in a posada, and actually, we only semi-participated. The custom is to carry a plastic Jesus to different houses and sing at the doors, asking for a place to stay. When the singers reach the final verse, those inside the house open the door, letting everyone enter. Once inside, they sing another song to the plastic Jesus, recite some 'Hail Marys', and then they kiss the plastic doll's feet. Abraham and I stayed outside, along with a few others.

At 11 p.m. we returned to Nora's house to eat the Christmas feast. Very late at night, we drove home. On Christmas day, we woke up late, talked to my family via skype, sang some carols, and drove to my mother-in-law's house for dinner. Again we stayed out late, returning after midnight to our home.

We learned some sad news that night. There are two unmarried young women in the church who are pregnant. Because of who they are, their pregnancies have the potential to cause problems in the entire church. Please join us in prayer that this situation will end up bringing only good to Dios es Amor.

We welcomed New Year's at our home, hosting my mother-in-law, brother-in-law, a friend, and her son. We ate a late dinner and then settled down to watch a video. It was a few minutes after midnight when we finished the video, so we missed the official transition, but we each ate twelve grapes anyway. Our guests stayed the night in our living room and left late afternoon Jan. 1.

May God bless you in this new year!

Virgen de Guadalupe

On December 12th, the Catholics of Mexico celebrate the appearance, 500 years ago, of the Virgen de Guadalupe to Juan Diego. She is, according to the belief of many, one incarnation of Mary, the mother of Jesus. The main area for worshipping her is the Basilica in Mexico City, but Puebla also has a church specially dedicated to her.

Abraham has an assignment for one of his seminary classes to investigate and report on Catholicism in Mexico. The afternoon and evening of the 11th and again on the 12th morning and once more at night, we joined swarms of people outside of the church to conduct interviews. The park by the church was filled with carnival rides and vendors of everything from food and drinks to tee-shirts and trinkets. By night, it was a blaze of light and sound, so filled with people that at times we couldn't even move through the crowd.

We interviewed five women and five men, chosing a range of ages. Our questions included asking if they were Catholic and why. At the 'why' question, the women I interviewed gave me blank looks. Some of them asked, "What do you mean?" Well, of all the religions in the world, why that one? All but one answered, "Because my parents are." The interviews revealed that many didn't really know what they believed or why. Several admitted to never reading the Bible.

At midnight on the 11th/12th, Abraham and I watched part of the service in the Basilica on t.v. It was very disheartening to see the thousands of people streaming in and through the church, giving their adoration to the "mother of God."

The afternoon of the 12th, Abraham and I met Ken out at Huejotzingo to practice "Joy to the World" and the script of A Christmas Carol with the kids. More kids came this week than last week, but we still haven't had all the participants together at one time. Our Scrooge has never rehearsed with the kids, and we're not entirely sure he'll actually show up. Never a dull moment...

On Sunday afternoon, we all stayed busy putting up Christmas decorations, putting more layers on piñatas, rehearsing the song and the script, distributing snacks and cleaning up afterward, and going over the normal Bible story. Next week on Sunday is the actual presentation, but we will go to Huejotzingo Saturday in the morning rather than in the afternoon, because one of the girls has her quinceaños celebration in the afternoon.

the Christmas season

Advent has begun. This year in my class, we're doing different Christmas-related activities each day and discussing the story of Jesus' birth. A few days ago, I asked my fifth and sixth graders to write down as much of the Christmas story as they knew. The results were surprising: these children of pastors and missionaries had many errors in their stories. I hope that by the time we leave for vacation on the 18th, the children will know the true story.

Meanwhile, we continue to work with the children in Huejotzingo. Abraham and I edited Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol and converted it into a reader's theater. We have started going on Saturday afternoons as well as on Sundays in order to practice two songs and the reader's theater. Last Saturday we also started making piñatas. Although many of the kids do not read well, they are starting to learn their parts.


Last Sunday a friend of Abraham's from the seminary invited him to speak at his church. This church is brand new and meets in a home. Abraham spoke from Luke chapter 2, emphasizing how the shepherds shared the news of Jesus' birth immediately. We too have the privilege and responsibility to share the Good News.

This season in Mexico is one when the focus leaves the birth of Jesus and turns to Guadalupe. Thousands of pilgrims walk, drive, or bike to the Basilica in Mexico City to adore the virgin on Dec. 12. We've been seeing pilgrims traveling, carrying their images and pictures. Please pray that the true message of God's Gift to humanity would break through the confusion of the traditions surrounding Guadalupe.

On Sunday evening, Abraham and I set up our first Christmas tree. We found a good artificial tree at a swap meet and bought lights and bulbs to decorate. After returning from Huejotzingo, we put the tree together and strung lights. The results are lovely! This will be our first Christmas as a married couple and my first Christmas away from my parents, brother, and sisters. We will be starting new traditions together.

"God bless us, every one!"

Thankful

It has been awhile since I´ve posted. For some time I was working on editing a copy of The Christmas Carol in Spanish so that the kids in Huejotzingo could do a readers´ theater presentation of it on Dec. 21. It will be a challenge to get the readers´ theater together since many of the children do not attend school and therefore don´t read very well. Today Abraham and I took the 1 1/2 hour bus ride out to Huejotzingo to begin rehearsals. Until the performance, we´ll continue going on Saturdays in addition to our normal Sunday afternoon visits.

Please join us in prayer. We believe God is calling us to work full time in Huejotzingo in the near future and are considering buying property there. At present a smallish lot with nothing on it costs anywhere from $6,000 to $8,000 USD to buy. That is a very good price, but we simply don´t have the money for it. However, if God would have us move there and own our property, he will provide.

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Abraham and I joined the Puebla Christian School staff for a potluck feast a week before the actual Thanksgiving day, but we also invited my mother and brother-in-law to celebrate at our house the date of Thanksgiving. It was their first time eating a Thanksgiving meal, since Mexico does not celebrate this holiday (Abraham had to go to school that day, and Ken skipped his to join us). We enjoyed the traditional foods, although the "turkey" was actually chicken, and Ken bought tortillas to complete the meal. When we had finished eating the main meal, we were too full for apple pie just yet, so Abraham and I went to rent a movie. After the movie, it was too late for Ken, Six, and Chava to go home, so we set up makeshift beds, and they stayed the night.

There are so many things I thank God for during this season. My wonderful husband, my families, work that I enjoy, provision for all our needs, faithful supporters, health, a beautiful home, the children in Huejotzingo, and the list goes on... What are you thankful for?

Acapulco

A week ago, Abraham and I took an emergency trip to Acapulco. A friend of my brother-in-law had died unexpectedly, leaving some property in Acapulco to my brother-in-law who lives in the States. This friend who had died was someone Abraham and I met 11 months ago when we had chance for an expense-paid trip to Acapulco in January. Last week, my brother-in-law asked Abraham if he could go take care of the paperwork involved with the properties and also comfort the other friends who had lived with the man who died.

Abraham asked me if I could go too, so we found a substitute for the afternoon for my class and caught a bus for the seven hour trip. We arrived in the early evening, on time for the body to be brought to the house. What followed was, for me, an entirely new experience. People had gathered for the wake, and many had brought candles, pictures of saints, or flowers which they set around the coffin. One of the women began the velorio (wake) service which lasted about 20 minutes. After that, Abraham spoke about the story of the Prodigal Son from Jesus' parables.

Near midnight, after talking with the friends at the house, Abraham and I left for the restaurant where, 11 months before, we had eaten garlic shrimp prepared by the man whose life ended so suddenly in October. The restaurant had been closed for some time. We pushed two couches together and covered them with sheets, and that became our bed for the two nights we stayed.

Saturday morning, Abraham spent quite a long time sorting through legal papers and talking on the phone with my brother-in-law to find out what needed to be set aside and copied. We joined the friends to take the body to be cremated, and then we went downtown to make a huge bundle of copies. That took until evening, and then we returned to the house to talk again with the grieving friends until late night.

Sunday morning was our only chance to see the beach. We took the bus to a lovely beach called Caleta, and enjoyed the clear water, bright skies, and hot weather. We could only stay about an hour, however, because the bus leaving for Puebla pulled out at 12:30. Even though we hurried and the taxi ride to the station felt like Six Flags, we made the bus with only 5 minutes to spare.

Finally, at nine p.m. we entered our home in Puebla. It had been far from a vacation visit to the beach! I'm so glad we can sleep in tomorrow, since this week at school felt very long and tiring.

Thank you for your continued prayers for our health and safety. Your support is vital.