A Day at the Youth Home

Today we went to EV to play with the kids. Right after we got there all the kids went into their dorms and we were rather disappointed. But, within a half hour, all of the kids came out and the girls came over from their area. The kids had a great time playing.

I said I would put a picture of Jonathan's new friend

so here is Jonathan with his friend Kevin. Believe it or not, Kevin is 13.

Jonathan is being tackled by Mario. Jonathan with group of boys. He is so much taller than all of them.

Here is Erin with her best friend in Mexico, Angelica.
I brought a book, mi primer libro de palabras en español (My First Book of Words in Spanish), to the home with me today. The little kids loved it. There was one page in particular that caused a lot of laughs. It has a picture of kids on it doing all kinds of things. One picture says besarse, meaning to kiss each other and has a picture of two little kids kissing. They laughed and laughed at that one and kept coming back to that picture when I would turn the page.

Here is a picture of the kids looking at the book. They would put their hand over the picture that they like.

It was a great day and we look forward to more of them. The kids and I are practicing our Spanish whenever we are at the home. The kids are great about helping us. I also had my tutoring session today so I had one of the teen girls look over my homework and I had all my answers correct. I have a more difficult time communicating with the teen girls so it was a great opportunity to interact.

We are thankful that the Internet is working better and we can post more pictures. We hope to be able to continue to post on a more regular basis. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. We appreciate them all.

40 Day Challenge from Ann Dunagan

Ann Dunagan is the author of The Mission Minded Child and The Mission Minded Family. Beginning today, she is challenging families to take the 40 day challenge to become a more mission minded family. I would like to encourage you to follow along. We are going to follow along because becoming mission minded is a process. We are continually learning what that means even as we are on the mission field. So, follow along with us and let's see how we can develop our hearts to become more mission minded. It looks like a lot of fun!

40 Day Challenge

Erin and Nacho

I did not have a new picture of Erin last night so I took some when she was going to bed.



She tried to hide Nacho in her stuffed animals. Can you tell which is real?


After hiding Nacho, she decided to try it herself.

Finally, an Update

Well, it has been quite the ordeal with the Internet here and I have not been able to post a blog in a while. I keep trying to but when I try to publish it, it never works. So, I am hoping it will work this time.

This week has been a good one. Jim completed his second week at the youth home and he has been given more responsibilities. We had our first group last weekend since we arrived. It was a group from Oaxaca, Mexico and we had a great time with them. The next group comes next weekend. It is a group of 13 women from the US. We look forward to having them here.

We have gone over to the home several times this week and the kids have been able to play with the kids there. Jonathan and Erin like going to the youth home during Jim's lunch break and eating lunch with him and the kids there. Then we stay and play for a while. Jonathan made a new friend this week. His name is Kevin. I don't have a picture yet but I will get one on soon.

Here is Jonathan with Manuel.


Jim with Mario. Mario looks for Jim everyday and has become quite fond of Jonathan also.

This week I finished the curtains for the living room and dining room. The only ones that I have left now is one set for Jonathan's room and then I have our bedroom to do which is a big job. Our room has three large windows and three smaller ones that make up a bay window like in Erin's room.

Making curtains.

This are the living room curtains.

Our dining room has a window that looks out to the laundry/storage room. I wanted curtains on the window so when we have company, we can close off that room.

Isn't that better not having to look at our storage shelves?

My tutoring is going well. I have completed one week which is two lessons. I am still amazed at how much I understand. We had Miguel, Bridget and baby Asher over for dinner one night this week. The first half or more of the night was spoken in Spanish and I was also able to interact in Spanish also. I have been told that I am doing well.

Last night I made Pozole, which is a meat and hominy soup that originated in Puebla. We had our neighbor, Amaranda over for dinner. She is a single lady that works at one of the universities here in Puebla. We are trying to reach out to her by becoming friends. We enjoyed her company and shared together about our families. I was quite honored when she said that my Pozole was as good as any she'd eaten here in Puebla.

Tonight, Mary and Marty (other missionaries here) dropped by. We are glad that people feel welcomed to just stop by on their walks. They were out walking their dog and Mary hadn't seen our place since we moved in. They are wonderful people and we enjoy their friendship. We will stop by their place some time when we are walking also.

I hope to be able to post a little more frequently but as you can see with the Internet here, it all depends on the day. Friday we did not have Internet almost all day. Hopefully it won't be as long until my next post.

Thank you to all of you who are praying for us. God is blessing on a daily basis and we are all doing wonderful.

Finally Back On Line

Hello everyone. It has been a few days since I have posted anything and I just wanted to let you know we are still here. We have had very bad Internet connections lately which is why I haven't posted. I haven't even been able to get onto my blog. Today Jim saw a Megacable car on his way home from work and had them come and check it out. Now it is working much better allowing me to finally update on what we have been doing.

We have gone over to EV the last couple of days and the kids have had a lot of fun playing with the kids at the home. Yesterday Erin was able to go over to the girls side where she could play with the younger girls. Molly, one of the other missionary moms, went to the home with her four kids. She went to the girls side with Erin and her two girls and I stayed on the boys side with Jonathan and Molly's two boys. Erin had a great time and Jonathan did too. Jonathan played soccer with a bunch of the little boys. It was pretty funny since Jonathan was a foot taller than all the other boys. It looked like the boys were playing soccer against a giant. Today we went again but we had to stay on the boys side. So Erin visited with some of the teen girls and Jonathan was playing with the boys. One boy, Mario, likes playing with Jonathan. He and another boy were asking what different words were in English which was good because we heard the same word in Spanish. Jonathan has taken off with asking what words are in Spanish which is really neat. We hear Erin speaking in Spanish at times also. They are catching on more and more as we go over to the home and they interact with the kids.

I began my Spanish tutoring on Monday and I have my second lesson tomorrow. It is great to just listen to people talk and I am understand a lot more than I can speak. The tutor speaks only in Spanish to me so it is a total immersion class. I am also going through vocabulary cards trying to increase my Spanish vocabulary. My only question is, "Why didn't I do more of this while in the states?" It was much harder there though since I didn't have many places to practice what I was learning. Here, anything I learn, I can use right away.

The kids recently asked to carry their own money with them rather than us carrying it for them. It has been amazing to see how they handle it. We thought that they would just blow through there money, wasting it on things. We have been pleasantly surprised at how they have chosen to use it though. They have bought things for themselves, stopping at OXXO, which is like a 7-Eleven, to get a soda or some chips. But what has been wonderful to see is their generous hearts at the home. They have been choosing to spend their money on the kids at the home. They have bought them popcycles, chips and other things like that. Erin even used her money to tip the grocery bagger at the store the other night. Here you tip the grocery bagger at the store and that is their only pay. So, it was quite a thing to see her take her wallet and tell Jim, "No, I will do it."

Well, it is almost 11:00 at night and I need to say good-night. I will try to get more pictures posted soon.