Thoughts...

We have been singing a song at church that is my prayer. Many times I fall short, but my heart is there. I am first putting the chorus here in Spanish and then in English.

Te amo, mi esperanza está en ti,
Cristo Jesus
Tomamé, me doy a ti.

I love you, all of my hope is in you
Jesus Christ,
Take my life, take all of me.

Today was kind of difficult because our friends, the Dixons, left to move back to the states. I began a friendship with Sandy on the phone while we were still living in the states and we hit it off very well from the first time we met here. We went to the grocery store together, she helped me pick out fabric for the curtains in our bedroom, and we spent time at each other's houses. Although we have friends here that make the journey more fun, in the end, we came to give our lives, to give all of ourselves to what God has called us to do. That is the most important thing. When we sing this song at church, my heart just cries the truth of the words. All of our hope is in Jesus. We want Him to take our lives, to take all of us and use us in whatever way he wants to.

Music is such a great tool that gets to the center of our hearts. Down here in Mexico, even though I don't always understand everything that we sing, I know that we are all worshipping the One True God and there is no language barrier in that. I would love to know what songs are touching your hearts so please feel free to comment.

By the way, Sandy if you read this, give Luke a big group hug from Jonathan, Erin and me. He kept mentioning it and then if it happened, we weren't a part of it. So, you all give a big group hug to each other and know that it is from us. We love you guys and we will miss you.

An Afternoon in Cholula

We recently found out that the the Great Pyramid of Cholula is free on Sundays so we went to Cholula Centro for the afternoon with our friends, the Dixons. Even though they had been to Cholula Centro, they had never been to the pyramid. While walking around to the entrance we walked through the market and came upon some cultural aspects of Mexico. There were Aztec Indians who were performing dances and what seemed to be prayer rituals. My heart broke at the thought of these people going up for prayer and knowing that only the One True God would ever meet their needs and yet they were believing in the prayer of these people to their false gods. The people here are steeped very deeply in their religion and it is so sad to see. There is such freedom in Christ, but in these religions there is such bondage. We have been singing a song in church that speaks of being free. When we sing the chorus, people just start dancing because many people here are freed of such bondage when they come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. It is such a beautiful thing to see. Below are some pictures of what we saw today while in Cholula.

Here are pictures of the Aztec Indians performing their prayer rituals and dances.

This is the market we walked through.
You can actually go inside the pyramid. Here are some pictures of us in the pyramid.


This obviously leads up some stairs a lot further. We were not able to go up there.
Pictures from outside the pyramid.
This is some artwork that was on one of the alters.
We were not exactly sure about this guy but I thought I would take a picture of him.
Jonathan, Erin and Luke on an alter that was used to sacrifice young children to the rain gods.



After five trips to this area, I finally went all the way to the top of these stairs.
Here is a picture from the top. Down to the left of the big tree standing by the stairs is my friend, Sandy. My she looked small from way up there.
These guys twirl from the top of a big pole. It's rather interesting.
Erin bought this from one of the local vendors outside the pyramid. She likes to shop.
When we went to the centro, there were all kinds of dances going on with really neat costumes.

That's all for now.

Rice and Beans and Beans and Rice

Before we moved to Mexico, we told the kids we would be eating lots of rice and beans and beans and rice. Well, the rice part has certainly been very true. We bought a rice cooker before leaving after using our daughter's and we have used it for probably 85% of all our dinner meals. I love the rice cooker because my rice turns out great and I don't have to watch it closely.


I tried my hands at making homemade refried beans also but they didn't turn out very good. Thanks again to my daughter who put a web site about crock pot cooking on her blog, I found a way to cook my beans in the crock pot and then freeze them to use just as you would using canned beans. So I have prepared a whole bag of black beans to use with different recipes. To find out how to cook them, just click here.


If you like beans and want to save some money by not having to buy canned beans, try it, it works really well.

Saying Good-bye to New Friends

One of the missionary families that we have met since we came is returning to the states. They will be leaving sometime next week. We will miss them but have faith that God will direct their path as the begin another new phase in their lives. Last night, we had a going away dessert for them here at our house. We had brownie sundaes which were really good. It was awesome to have a number of the people over from EV.

Pat, Sandy and Luke - we will miss you.

The ladies visited on one side of the room and...

the men visited on the other.

Blessings From the States

This past week we had a group here from Wisconsin. They really touched Jim's and my heart. It was a team that had never been here nor had their church ever sent out a missions team anywhere. The team was so unified and had a great attitude all week. We were so blessed by them. I am posting some pictures from the week. Hopefully I don't repeat any I've put on already but if so, you can enjoy them again.

Here is a picture of the team. Erin liked the fact that there were some younger girls on the team.


It was awesome to see the team touched by the Lord during their visit, to see lives that you know won't be the same again. How do I know they won't be the same again? Because I remember the feeling myself. This team had several youth that were touched by the Holy Spirit. I personally heard reports from a dad that shared about how he saw his kids touched. One girl, Brittany (14 years old), wanted to sponsor a child on her own. She has a job at home and even if her family decided to support a child, she wanted to support a certain little girl on her own.

Here is a picture of Brittany with Jessica, her newly sponsored child.


Ed was touched by the Lord during this trip too. He said he came to help the group that way with the work projects. He's not a teacher like some of the others in the group are, but I think the kids really got to him. From what he said, he plans on returning.

Here is a picture of Ed counting leaves in Spanish with one of the kids.


One day the team was making balloon animals and swords. Eleazer had them make a sword and then he ran to get his Bible.


The teams theme was "The Fingerprint of God" from the song by that title by Steven Curtis Chapman. They translated the chorus into Spanish and it was amazing to hear the kids catch on to the song. Even little Evelyn could sing the chorus without any help by the end of the week. They made cards for the kids to be able to follow and learn the words.






This is a picture I forgot to put on early of Augustín putting the wiggly eyes on himself.


Of course I need to have a couple of pictures on here of my own kids so here are a couple that I thought were cute.

Here is a precious picture of Erin carrying Evelyn, the youngest of the children here.


Jonathan is tickling Mario here.