Rededi

After almost ten years of marriage, Abraham and I now own our first vehicle, bought with funds donated to our family.  Abraham researched online and asked for advice from friends and chose the Toyota Avanza as our best option.  The car has good gas mileage and seats seven.   It is from 2017, and the previous owner fitted it with a deer guard (dog guard, around here!) and lightly tinted windows.

In its time with us, Rededi (Regalo De Dios) has already had adventures.  Not long after we brought it home, we had several near misses with dogs running suddenly out into the street.  People aren´t always careful crossing the street either, and lots of the drivers on the road probably shouldn´t be behind the wheel.  The interior of the car was recently decorated with melted chocolate when a chocolate-covered balloon exploded as I took home one of the pre-teens I teach on Tuesday afternoons.  There is also always plenty of mud or dust to decorate both inside and outside.

Although driving around Puebla is still difficult for me - I like being able to know where the lane lines are and they aren´t usually marked, nor are most speed bumps painted - the car has been helpful in many ways.  Getting to and from the market on Saturdays is now much easier, as is traveling to Puebla Christian School to teach on Thursdays.  Also, we have been able to take friends from Huejotzingo to church, cutting the travel time from 1 1/2 hours to only a half hour.  For a few years now we have had a mid-week Bible study with a family with six children, and now we can pick them up from their home for Sunday kids' club as well.  The oldest girl of that family can participate in the pre-teens' craft or dessert class on Tuesdays, because I can drive her (hence the exploded balloon mentioned earlier).  Because of the car, we can now enroll Abish in swim classes, even though the pool is fairly far away. 

Rededi is a blessing, and we know it isn't really ours.  It belongs to God, and we intend to use it as he directs.  Please pray that it will continues to serve well and that we stay free from accidents.

What to Write?

Blog posts are fewer and farther between than ever.  Partly, it is because we have more to do than ever.  Continuing to make our house a home, teaching Abish in first grade, and all the other business of life keep us constantly occupied.  In a facetime conversation with my sister, I commented, "I don´t understand how anyone can ever be bored.  There is always something to be doing!" - and she, a very active preschool teacher, music and museum goer, and more - agreed.

concentrating on handwriting

However, I could make time to write in the blog more often if I knew what updates to give.  We haven´t really changed anything since the last time I posted.  Sure, there are a few updates.  For example, Abish started first grade in January, and he and I both enjoy the sonlight curriculum. (what teacher doesn´t love to hear their student ask to read another page?)  Abraham is Abish´s first grade teacher Mondays and Fridays, teaching in Spanish, while I teach in English Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  Thursdays I instruct elementary art at Puebla Christian School, and Abish now joins the other students in doing the assigned art projects and drawings.

the Lorax

 Like last year, at the beginning of this month, we celebrated Read Across America with many Seussian activities, both at home and at PCS.  There are so many fun ideas online for the books that we focused on Dr. Seuss for four days and still didn´t do every activity I planned.

the corner of the bed, fenced off to keep poultry out

With warm weather here to stay for the next few months, I can now go crazy with the garden.  We have so much lovely space!  - with weeds, moles, gophers, our duck, my mother-in-law´s free-range chickens, and poor soil to take into account.  To combat the challenges, we will be using raised beds to grow our vegetables, herbs, and flowers.  Abraham built our first bed several months back, and now I enjoy seeing the new seedlings springing up after last week´s planting.  How exciting it was, two weeks ago, to receive a package of seeds, ordered from Baker Creek Seeds, in the mail at PCS.  (side note and shameless promotion - Baker Creek mails for free in North America!) As soon as I can finish the beds, marked off with recycled bottles collected from litter in Huejotzingo, Abish and Lani will each have their own place to plant, too.

As for the Bible studies, kids´ club, math and English classes, Abraham taking turns preaching at Dios es Amor, both of us helping to teach Sunday school, and crafts or cooking with pre-teen girls, all continues as before.  The Sunday afternoon group is smaller now that a family moved out of the neighborhood.  They had promised to send the kids still, but have not followed through.  One addition to the classes previously listed is that I began teaching basic reading and math to a six-year-old who does not go to school.  Hopefully, her grandmother will continue to take her to the classes every Tuesday and Friday.  Abraham and I go to her house on Wednesdays.

We will soon need to start writing our curriculum for the vbs.  Ours will be July 15 - 19.  The theme will be the life of Moses.

Thank you for your prayers and support.  Please pray for our health and safety and for wisdom as we lead Bible studies and teach the variety of classes.  Pray also for a family in Huejotzingo that we have known for a long time.  Their lives rival any soap opera for suffering and problems.  Pray also for another person we have known for long time in Huejo who was recently diagnosed with colon cancer.

A year later

Running on the cistern - the yard visible behind her

Well, not quite a year.  We moved onto this property Oct. 2, 2017.  We ended up staying in Six´s house until December, when our house was sufficiently finished for us to move into it.  What a lot of progress has been made in this year!  Six´s house is complete, except for the flooring which has been bought but not installed.  Our house is done, except for the second story bars on the windows and perhaps flooring on the second level.  Don Ezekiel put the finishing touches on the front building where we will have classes for our neighbors once the electricity and plumbing are complete.

What lacks in our house is furniture and railings on the stairs.  When my dad visited in July, he helped us buy some items, but we will need to make shelves and other storage spaces, in addition to closets and kitchen cupboards.  At present, the top part of the stairs is protected by boxes of mostly books.  We plan to install bookshelves there.

Since starting school in February, Abish has almost learned how to read in both English and Spanish.  He is also comfortable counting in both languages from 1 - 100 and can do single digit addition and subtraction.  He and Lani are both fascinated by learning about famous landmarks, and are thrilled when they recognize one outside of school.  We have chosen the Sonlight curriculum for Abish´s first grade year, which he will start early 2019.

A few days ago, Abraham and I talked over our plans to start home churches in Huejotzingo.  Although we have lived in this area for a little more than 8 years, there has not been progress in raising up new leaders.  People we have done Bible studies with have not grown as we hoped.  Some have moved and stopped having Bible study.  Therefore we will be trying a new idea.  We hope to have a church-type service in the house where we continue to teach English, do crafts or cooking with the girls, have kids´ club on Sundays, and do math tutoring.  We plan to model the church service on the kids´ club, but invite adults for a monthly Saturday afternoon service and then have a time of talking and playing games afterward.

Please pray for us as we try this new service.  Pray also for those we do Bible study with, that they
would grow and learn and that those who have moved would once again want studies.  Pray for us as we go about finishing the details in our home.

Huejotzingo vbs

Vacation Bible School 2018 has come and gone, and quite frankly, it is a relief to have it over.  We decided on the theme of the life of Barnabas in the New Testament.  Normally we begin preparing for Huejotzingo´s vbs in January, but with home schooling Abish and all the details of our new home, we didn´t begin any work on the vbs until late March.  All the planning and preparation takes lots of time, but is completely consuming during the actual week of the school. 

Our two registration ladies

My dad and Joyce arrived a few days before the event.  Abish and Lani were ready to pop waiting for them and were so excited when they actually came in the door.  Waiting is difficult for little people.

Monday, as per the usual, was quite hectic as we set up the craft and worksheet for the day, enrolled the arriving children, and sorted out last minute details.  Just like last year, my dad drove over to pick up some children who live too far away to walk to the house.

the schedule we more or less followed

The other days went more smoothly, and each day saw four or five more children arrive than the day before.  On the last day, we had 45, and on the enrollment, we had 54.  Friends from Dios es Amor and two mothers from another church, along with other friends helped us teach the children, do the crafts and worksheets, serve snack and clean dishes, and run games.

Each volunteer was a great blessing.  We certainly cannot run vbs without help.

Although our own kids mostly enjoy the week, it is also quite hard on them.  Abish, a veteran of several vbs´ and the more outgoing of our kids, laments the end of the week´s activities.  Lani becomes increasingly clingy and crabby as the days pass.  On Friday I let her hang out in the living room for about an hour rather than participate outside with the other kids.  The week is, without a doubt, very tiring.

On Monday Abraham dressed up as Peter to tell about Barnabas selling his field and donating the money to the disciples.  A friend memorized the monologue of Paul who was first accepted by Barnabas after Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus.  I told Wednesday´s story from the point of view of a woman of Antioch where Paul and Barnabas stayed and taught for a year.  Thursday was another friend telling John Mark´s story of how Barnabas accepted him again even after he had abandoned Paul and Barnabas in a previous missionary journey.  On the last day, my brother-in-law spoke as Barrnabas about how following Jesus hadn´t always been easy.

Rachel as a lady from Antioch

Thank you for your support and prayers for us.  Please pray that the lessons from the life of Barnabas would stay with each person who participated in the vbs week.  The majority of the children who attended do not do any other activity with us but have been to at least two or three vbs´.

Abraham as Peter, telling about Barnabas

lots to do

Our house is pretty much done.  There are a few details that will be added over time, like interior doors and security bars on the second floor, but the construction, plumbing, electricity, and windows are all finished.  We also still need to install railings on the stairs and perhaps put in flooring.

What remains is the rather overwhelming task of completely moving in.  We still have lots of stuff in boxes (some people in this family really love books...).  There is a bit of a catch-22, though.  In order to unpack, we need some more furniture to be able to put away the contents of the boxes.  We would like to make the majority of the furniture, but to do that, we need the tools and space to do it.  The tools are, you guessed it, in boxes, and many boxes are stored in the workshop where we will make furniture.  So which to do first?  Unpack so there is space to make the furniture, or make the furniture so there is a place to put the unpacked stuff?  The likely solution is to buy some of the items already made.

tetanus mountain

And there is the yard - a large area of potential where we can design any sort of garden we want.  And we will.  There is, however, a great deal of work to be done before we can properly start gardening.  For one thing, the yard is littered with bits of wire and rusty nails.  Every time I go out, I make sure to pick up any metal I see, and the mountain of discarded bits continues to grow, but it seems there is an unending supply.  There are also rocks, rubble, buried slabs of cement, and miscelaneous trash scattered about.  The soil, too, is quite poor, being composed mostly of sand.

Still, we do have some plants already set out.  The climbing roses are flowering, and we have harvested some radishes the kids planted in a small plot near the house.  A friend of ours gave us lots of small fruit trees and some avocado trees to add to the various fruit trees we already brought with us from our other house.  The trees from the other house are enjoying their new place, and we look forward to future harvests of peaches, figs,
chirimoyas and more.

It is exciting to consider all we can do with this new property and house.  It is also daunting.  I have to remember the moral of one of Abish's favorite fables, "Slow and steady wins the race."  Bit by bit, it will all get done.  Please pray for us as we continue our regular ministry, homeschool Abish, and do all that we need to completely move in to our house.

Kindergarten

Even before we were married, Abraham and I agreed that however many children we had, we would educate at home.  When we talked about it after Abish was born, and then Lani, we continued to think that home school was the best idea for our kids.  With homeschool, we can decide on the curriculum and also make sure both kids stayed truly bilingual by teaching in both Spanish and English.

Now Abish has been five for more than six months.  We had first thought of starting kindergarten when the school, Puebla Christian School, began their classes in August.  However, that was not a good option, because by then we were getting ready to move into my mother-in-law's almost completed house.  While staying with her, we didn't have an adequate space, or the resources (almost all our stuff was packed), to do school with Abish.  Then we thought we would start school in January.  By then we had moved ourselves, and lots of packed items, into our mostly finished house.

However January didn't really work, because we were in the States for the first two weeks for my brother's wedding.  We settled on starting in February.  We couldn't quite get everything ready for starting on the first week of February, so it was the second week when I sat down with Abish at his little table, and we began with a prayer.

Eiffel Tower with straws

Abraham teaches Caminata Biblica, PE, a reading progam called Mas Luz, and also counting from 1 - 20 in Spanish.  I am the lesson planner in general and also teach Walk Through the Bible, reading from the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, geography, and math.  He does not, of course, do everything
every day.  Lani sometimes likes to join the classes.

proud of her work

For the most part, although he complains about the intrusion on his play time, he likes school.  When I read the California standards for kindergarten before we began school, I was pleased to see that he already knew most of what was listed.

As we do classes, the sound of the workers finishing the second story can sometimes be rather loud.  However, they have made excellent progress, and we should be able to use the whole, finished house in about a month.

Please join us in praying that Abish will learn well in school and that the work on the house will continue with no accidents.

Baby, It's Cold Outside...

...and inside!  Although the days can become quite hot, the nights and early mornings are now frigid.  The main difficulty with this cold is that the house temperature plunges along with the outside temperature and does not warm up until afternoon when the sun shines directly through the living room and dining room windows.  Even if the temperature outside becomes hot, the house stays stubbornly cold.  It is not uncommon for us to be able to see our breath inside in the morning! 

We do have a gas-powered space heater that helps.  Whoever gets up first lights it, and then we leave it on for a few hours.  That brings the inside temperature up a few degrees.  Even so, in the mornings we often leave the house in order to warm up outside.  While inside, we all keep one or two sweaters or jackets on.  We have plans to install clay ovens in both houses, and those will be useful for warmth once they are completed.

the papaya definitely doesn't like cold

A chilled avocado tree

The autumn weather means that, in the night, the grass develops a fine layer of frost which clings until the sun touches it.  Several of the plants we put out in the garden resent the cold, and their blackened, withered leaves show their displeasure.  Hopefully the plants are strong enough to rebound when the weather warms up again in March.

Most of the plants aren't out in the garden yet, as there is no place for them.  There are still workers coming six days a week since construction continues on our house, now on the second story.  Six's first story is mostly complete, although she doesn't have a proper floor yet.  We are still living in her house, because ours does not have finished windows, nor does it have doors or electricity.  We hope to be mostly moved into our house before Christmas, although that may mean finding someone else to do the doors.

The well is almost finished, and today we had giant puddles (which both the kids and the ducks enjoyed), while the well-diggers emptied water in order to keep digging a bit more.  Seeing the digging progress amazes me at how labor-intensive it is!  One man is lowered by pulley on a handmade swing while the other man stays above to help.  The one in the well digs or chisels out rocks by hand and passes buckets up with the same pulley.  All this inside a deep hole...

Please continue to pray for us.  Pray for the construction to continue without injury or accidents.  Pray also that the people working for us will desire a relationship with their Savior.  Some of the men have had conversations with both Six and Abraham about their faith.  As always, please continue to pray for health.  Abish and Lani both have coughs now, although Lani is improving after several days with fever.

Grasshopper Season

Can you count how many there are?

As the rainy season ends, the grasshoppers begin to appear in great numbers, eagerly chomping holes in leafy weeds.  It is the season for hunting the protein-packed critters.  Out where we haved moved, there are probably thousands hopping from bush to bush.

holding the soda bottle - a great container for collecting

In the morning when the air is still chilly and the grasshoppers sluggish is the best time to catch them.  Alternately, late afternoon serves the same purpose as the temperature drops again.  Abish and Lani love to accompany me or their Grandmother Six on the hunt, although Abish prefers to collect the critters as friends.  I catch them for the geese who simply love to suction up the insects, and Six hunts to fry them for snacks.  Lani likes to eat them, and Abish used to, although recently he has decided he doesn´t like them.

just a start

What is interesting is that grasshopper hunting can be quite lucrative while the season lasts.  Don Ezequiel, the project manager of our construction project, told Six that some construction workers take the season off construction work because the pay is better selling grasshoppers.  A friend at church told us that in one area the people decided to grow corn, not for the crop, but for the grasshoppers it attracts.  The income was better selling the insects for food.

Abish feeding the eager geese

I have eaten grasshoppers, but I can´t quite get past their grasshopper-y appearance after they are cooked.  It isn´t that I´m squeamish exactly, but they don´t appeal to the sight.  And if one of my hard-to-feed kids enjoys them, who am I to take food out of her mouth?  However, catching the critters is kind of addicting when it is just for fun and to feed the geese.  There is always one more grasshopper just on the next leaf.  Freezing and staring at the bushes to spot their camouflaged shapes and then pouncing to catch just one more - and then finally deciding I have enough, only to see ten more teasing me from their bush.  They have this trick of dropping suddenly off their leaves and vanishing in the underbrush, and it is tempting to stay out looking for that one that got away.

Those who hunt for serious income use a hoop with a net on it instead of only using their hands.  They swoop the hoop above the ladened bushes, and the grasshoppers, trying to escape, jump straight into the net.  Six sometimes hunts that way, and she collects quite a bunch.  Free food!

Thank you for your continued prayers for us. Keep them coming!  The area where we are is pretty rural and not entirely secure.  We have lots of lights on at night around the two houses and our dog is on full alert (she is in fact rather hoarse from barking so much), but we have been told by several people that we should be careful with patterns - that thieves observe movements and take note of when the house is empty or when only one person is home.  So pray for protection, especially since the police are not dependable.

We have moved!

hanging off the temporary blockade in the doorway

 After some time of waiting while the builders worked steadily on my mother-in-law's house and ours, we have finally moved into my mother-in-law's.  It is not entirely finished, but there is electricity and running water, so that pretty much meant time to move.

We had planned to move just a few things for an overnight stay, leaving the rented house mid-afternoon in order to have daylight for arranging things and hanging motion sensor lights in the outside.  Abraham had called for a taxi so we could take some luggage and three mattresses.

However, the taxi never showed up.  When Abraham called, it turned out the taxi had broken down, but the driver didn't bother to tell us.  He called another driver we know, and he said he'd pick us up in 20 minutes, along with another driver so we could take three mattresses and also Six's stove.


An hour later, he still hadn't arrived.  Abraham's repeated calls didn't receive answer.  It was already dark by the time the two drivers pulled up to the door.  After the short ride, with our poor bewildered dog in the trunk of one of the cars, we arrived at the house.

exploring the bathroom

There was an abundance of flour-fine dust on the floor, so Six and I set about cleaning up some areas while Abraham and my brother-in-law Ken began hanging up the lights outside.  Abish and Lani ran screaming throughout the house, keyed up from the experience of being at the new house.  Our dog also began exploring at once.

 Because the house didn't have doors yet, we set up our huge tent for our family.  Abraham also worked out coverings for the doorways.  The tent will help keep us warmer in the cold nights and also keep the mosquitos out.

hanging lights

 There should be doors installed today, along with the bathroom windows that hadn't been put in yet.  In addition, we should have the right connections for the gas hook-up so we can shower tonight.  And we will be moving all of Six and Ken's things today, along with some of ours.  More creature comforts - Hooray!

Six's house seen from ours

a bit calmed down and drawing

Dinner, finally, at about 11 pm

Abish helping put up the tent

Ready for the Lechuga family

Strolling to the bus stop in the morning

Please pray for us as we finish moving.  Pray for safety, since it is a rather rural area and the back side of the property is quite dark (although the lights that Ken and Abraham put up help).  Pray also that the construction on our house can be finished soon and without difficulties, and that Six's house can also be done soon.  Thank you!

VBS edition

Almost one week ago, the Huejotzingo VBS at our house ended.  As with previous years, the week of the VBS was one of intense, all-absorbing work.  My dad was here for the week, and we had loan of the church van, so he left every morning at 10:30 to pass by three fairly remote houses to pick up kids and then return them at about 2:15 every afternoon.  He was also our photographer.

Day 1 began with chaos.  Our printer decided not to work, so we couldn´t print out the review pages for after the story.  Abraham then went to save the pages on a thumb drive in order to take them to a cafe internet, but the drive wouldn´t read them.  Therefore, he took the entire laptop off to the cafe internet.  While this was going on, my dad left to pick up the kids, along with my brother-in-law who supposedly knew where the houses were.  Our helpers arrived, and soon after the kids also arrived, but we didn´t have the computer to start teaching them the new songs as we had planned.  I decided to take all the kids at once to the patio for their snack, so we had a small crowd of varying ages all stuffed in the area where we had planned for only the little kids to be.  As I and our helpers were serving snack, my dad called to ask where the houses were, because my brother-in-law didn´t actually know and had taken him all the way out to the construction site instead.

After those wrinkles, everything began to calm down, and we were able to return to the planned schedule for the day.  During the time when all the kids are together inside, Abraham appeared dressed as Ruben, the oldest brother of Joseph. He explained why the brothers hated Joseph and had wanted to kill him, but Ruben convinced them to just put him in an empty cistern, planning to return him to his father later.  The other brothers, however, sold Joseph into slavery while Ruben was gone.

Once the kids heard the story, listening with rapt attention, they divided into two groups - the 2-6´s who went out to the patio, and the 7´s and up who stayed inside.  Each child made a paper bag puppets of Joseph with his coat of many colors and filled out the review pages, finally successfully printed downtown.  When they finished their craft and work page, we all returned indoors for a quick review, and they went home.

Over lunch with our marvelous helpers, we counted the names on the registry and found we had welcomed 41 kids, a much higher first day number than any other year.

As the numbers continued to increase each day, we had new wrinkles.  Some days the helpers arrived late, so we started out with only Abraham, Six, and I and an energetic bunch of children and young teens signing in all at once.  Some days Leilani just wanted to cling to either Abraham and I and desperately wanted her nap right at 1 when we still had another hour of VBS to finish.  Every day we had one three-year-old who wouldn´t obey a single command we gave and would blythely run out the gate and into the street if we didn´t catch her.  Each day Abraham´s voice became rougher and tireder from calling out instructions during game time and from reviewing verses with the two groups.

On Tuesday, my brother-in-law played the part of pharoah´s cup bearer and continued Joseph´s story.
Wednesday I was Joseph´s wife, Asenath, and Thursday a neighbor told more of the story as Judah, the brother who had most wanted to kill Joseph.  On Friday, one of our helpers (at the last minute) agreed to be Joseph and finished the story of his remarkable life.

Every day we also had a snack related to that day´s story.  We had games, songs, review, Bible verses, crafts, and pages to help the kids remember what they had learned.

Learning from last year, we decided to invite the parents to the finale on Friday.  That way, almost all the kids were already present, and their parents were much more likely to also attend.  A neighbor


family donated the cake and ice cream, and we gave each child their diploma and a gift for having been with us.  We still have to work on smoothing out the finale process, but Lord willing, there will be other years of VBS for us to continue to learn from.

In the end, we had a total of 62 kids registered, with Wednesday having the largest total all at once with 55.

Thank you for your prayers!  Please keep praying for us as the construction is almost finished on my mother-in-law´s house.  In about two weeks, she will move in.  Our house should be done in about a month.