Cena!!

On Sunday, yeah, almost a week ago already, part of the young group cooked up some cena, supper, after the singing. We had to use whatever I had in the fridge which limited what we could do, but everything seemed to go pretty well. We had quesadillas and fijolillas (I just made the second one up, I don't know what exactly you would call them. Tortillas filled with refried beans and then tossed on the skillet for a little bit). There was also some salsa whipped up that was pretty tasty itself. To top it off we had smoothies which turn out to be pretty easy to make considering all the fresh fruit that exists in the area.




The kitchen was a little full, but that's what makes things fun.



The salsa came out of the blender with some pretty spicy fumes, but it turned out to be pretty good stuff.



Here we are with content and full bellies. Good food... I mean 'Good times'...I mean 'Good times and good food'.

Prayer: (If you haven't noticed, I am trying to be a little more objective in posting prayer requests.)

1. Pray for wisdom for us to use the opportunities in front of us to share the love that God has given us. Pray that we can use the resources that we have to the best of our ability and that we can always be open to the Spirit's guidance here.

2. Praise for the encouragement that God gives, even through the small things.

School improvements.

I said that I would post some pictures of the school. Here you go. The carpet on the walls seems to have made a difference with the amount of echo in the room which has made a big difference in way that class goes. It also makes the room feel a litte nicer. We even thought it might work to hang student work or other teaching material. Very functional as it turns out.


My room. Not much to look at besides the newly installed carpet. Feels a little more schoolish actually.

The new fancy cabinet to hide the electric box and whatever else ends up going in there.

There isn't much to update about right now. Things are still continuing forward here even without Marshall and Jan which is surprising. (It isn't until they're gone that you figure out what all they get done in a day.)

I just turned around and saw a big ol' stack of books on my bed. Grading. I guess I should get to work.

Prayer:

1. Pray that I, and all of us, can be like Josiah (2 Kings 22-23). Pray that it can be said of me that I "turned to the Lord with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my might" (2 Kings 23:25). It is amazing to read through 2 Kings and see all the evil that was done. It becomes mind numbing. King after king succombs to the easier way out of doing what everyone else does and not following God. Then, all of a sudden there is a Josiah, tearing out everything that has to do with evil and following the directions of God to a 'T'. That is who I want to be.

Feast and Famine....and Feast

I am in the middle of two extremes right now. We just had a group of visitors down for a week. They left this morning. So did Marshall and Jan.

(Ruth and Keith Herrmann, Grant Herrmann, Brittany Sreitmatter)

You may remember Grant from early, more frequent posts, Grant Herrmann was here this summer to help. He came back to visit with his cousin Brittany Steitmatter and his aunt and uncle Keith and Ruth Herrmann. They spent a lovely week here cooking up some wonderous food (with many leftovers going into the freezer to feed me while Marshall and Jan are gone), working on improving the sound in the classes in the school, mingling with the church members, and enjoying the nice sunny weather. (A couple of side notes: I know that you are all enjoying record levels of cold, so I thought I would let you know that it was a nice sunny 76 degrees today, but then it started raining. The first rain we've had since September. To bad you had to leave so soon, Grant.)

I will have to supply some pictures of the school in the next couple of days. Thing are looking pretty good in there. We definitely appreciate the work that they were all willing to do and the friendships that were started in just a short week.

Marshall and Jan will be gone for the coming 3 weeks visiting their daughter in England. Pray for their safety traveling. They left today at about 9:30 and won't get there until tomorrow afternoon, I believe. This does leave me all alone here at the compound, if I can call it that. It will be a strange couple of weeks. At least Matt and Ruth are around a lot. I am sure the time will go fast, but I will get lonely, I am sure. (This would be the famine I was talkning about in the title.)

The feast comes again in February. Straight visitors from the 7th to the 28th. Should be interesting.

Prayer:

1. Please pray for safety for all those traveling now and in the next months. Especially pray for Marshall and Jan as they will be doing a lot of traveling.

2. Pray for me in the next three weeks. Pray that I don't get too lonely and that I can spend the extra time that I have profitably and get a little extra work done before we get busy in February, March, and April.

3. Pray for the school that we would make progress in the accredidation process and that we can find qualified, Mexican, Christian teachers for the school. Pray that we would have wisdom as we continue making plans and considering the needs that we will face in the next year and a half.

Adios, from the rainy way south.

I'm back

Hopefully I will be able to keep up a little better now. I am equipped and ready to take on the blogging world again. A little break and a chance to see everyone at home gives me the push that I need to get going again with this blogging thing (hopefully).



It was really nice to see family and friends over break. There is so much to catch up on and so many experiences that I missed out on. However, Christmas is over and it is time to look forward and to see just what the year that is coming is all about. It is weird to think that the next time I am in Indiana, there will be no ice, snow, or below zero temperatures. Instead it will be hot, humid, and green. I will say that I came back to a pleasent surprise. It is a pleasent, sunny, and breezy 72 degrees today. :)

I will start out the blog for this year with a request. Pray. Pretty simple, I guess. Pray for mission here in Ixtlan. There are many aspects and we can easily get caught up in this one or that one and we miss where God is leading us. Pray that we would have clarity in our positions here and that we could be open to whatever God drops in our laps.

Feliz Navidad!

(This is a poinsettia for those that are confused. A little bigger here in Mexico.)

Goodbye...

There is a mixture of goodbyes in this post. First of all, I was going to put a bunch of embarrassing photos of Spencer up, but I am not going to get it done, so - Spencer, you lucked out, man.

The first of the news is that Spencer left, Monday, for Indiana. He plans to be there for one and a half to two years before returning to sunny and warmer than Indiana, Ixtlan.

That all being said, I am much more lonely than before. In a matter of a month, less really, I have gone to living with two other guys to living alone. Bleh... Well actually, I haven't had a chance to really see how it is yet. I will be interesting. The house is a much colder, less personal place without other people there. I will have to keep you updated as time goes on.

So, Spencer (yes, I am pointing you out in front of all my hundreds of faithful readers - that statistic might be a little sarcastic), it was a good time. I will probably be talking to myself and have a long beard down to my stomach and not know what the light of day is and have myself locked away in my room as a hermit by the time you come back. If that happens, save me, please.

On the other side of things, I, too, am leaving Ixtlan, but only for two weeks. Yes, "I'll be home for Christmas," but I am not really dreaming of a white Christmas. I kinda come to like the warmer weather. It's kinda nice.

So, I will probably see you all real soon. I hope so anyway. I hear there's a winter storm going through right now. That could be problematic, we'll see.

Merry Christmas, everyone. I should have taken a picture to post as my Chistmas Card. I wasn't thinking. Oh, well.

Paz y esperanza al mundo.

Tortillas and the such-like

So an important endevour on any excursion to Mexico is learning to make tortillas. Really not that difficult, or so it would appear and so the people would tell you. Well it turns out that it is a quick way to learn humility and reinforce the fact that you don't really know everything in the world. The actual making of the raw tortilla is easy, provided you have the little machine that you use to smash them. I haven't even dared doing it by hand. The hard part is getting them on the griddle, fogón (as it is said here), without folding it over, ripping it, putting holes in it, whatever it might be. Then there is the matter of cooking them. You aren't actually making tortillas if you don't use your bare hands to flip the things on the griddle. That means that you are in the constant process of burning off your fingerprints. And of course the tortilla has to be flipped at just the right time so that it "inflates" and you have the perfect tortilla. Anyway, Spencer and I are in the process of learning this. Not as easy as it would seem. Although I do believe that it provides a constant source of entertainment for everyone who might be in the area. Here are the pictures.



Hot, hot, hot.....



I couldn't resist a quick bite.



Impressive, huh?

Las Cuevas

Thursday was the Day of the Revolution here in Mexico, so on Monday (the official day off), we went to an area known as Las Cuevas. It was about a 25 minute ride out into the country to the middle of nowhere where there happens to be a sand mine (or processing plant and a cave. The young groups started out to the caves with plans to arrive for the sunrise, but didn't leave on time at all and got out there in time to enjoy the cool wind and a fire.

We journeyed on to the cave and venture deep into the dark depths of the caves. Really only about 75 yards deep.

Here is a picture of the soon to be married Matt and Ruth at the entrance of the cave.




Next we found the big piles of sand. It turns out that it is both fun and slightly dangerous to play in the sand. We spent a significant amount of time filling our clothes with sand as we rolled down the hill and tried to see how far we could jump off the top of the hill. A couple of us ended up will a few bumps and bruises and sore muscles, but we all survived just fine.


Flying isn't easy...for most people.


Landing could be a little rough...


...but climbing was usually worse.

We ended with a late breakfast of tortillas and guisadas (see the picture below). It was very tasty and satisfying. I was even able to practice my tortilla making skills a little. None one was terrible impressed with the gringos' tortilla skills. More on that in a later post.

Here is a picture of the food. It was quite tasty (no, Spencer, Matt, and I didn't make any. we were in charge of the 'safer' things - anything you didn't have to cook.)



It was a realy great time for the young group to be able to have some time together and to get to know each other better. The fellowship is priceless when there seems to me so much going on down here. A day off can make all the difference in the world when it is spent with the right people.

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On a very different note. We ask that you pray for the school here. We hope to start a elementary school here next August and we need teachers to be able to continue with the accreditation. So far we have not found any. So we are praying that God would provide, that He would bring licensed, Mexican, primary teachers, that are also Christian. It seems like a long list of prerequisites, but we know that God is in control and He can provide abundantly for us.