Raffle Winner!

Cuca was the winner of last nights raffle. Congradulations Cuca!

Saturday Night Youth Event!

We had a blast last night at our once-a-month Youth Event. It was the first one we've had since we were here last in March. We had it located in Arrayanes to take advantage of the new sports court that some Short-Term Missions teams have built for us. We played speed soccer, and volleyball. There were nearly thirty students from Arrayanes, Cofradia and nearby Rosamorada. We divided them into four different teams. They played in the hot sun for a good hour and ended up exhausted. The winning team earned two bags of chips and some WWJD bracelettes. We also had a raffle of a little truck that someone in the states gave to us... the youth made around $45 dollars off of it. We also had other raffles or drawings and gave away a bunch of prizes. Jay put together a film of pictures and videos we had of the youth and everyone loved it! The Arrayanes Youth Band played worship and Pastor Horacio and I shared a little from the Bible. In the end, they were invited to come forward for prayer and a number of them responded with many different requests. It was a definate success and lots of fun!

Friday with the Dentists

I spent all Friday afternoon interpreting for some dentists that came down for a two day Micro-Mission. It was very tiring. I was very busy all week, and when I was done interpreting, I was wiped out. Click here to read about the last time they came. I'm sure there'll be something updated in the near future. These guys work fast, and I was wiped out.

Arguing

One of my Co-missionaries here told me he saw a quote on a video game once. I like it, it's actually pretty helpful.

"Don't argue with an idiot, he'll drag you down to his level and then beat you with experience."

Sometimes, I guess it's better to let it go and pour out your life in those who are hungry for Jesus.

Map of Cofradia Area

Here is a map that will show you what the area looks like with it's surrounding towns. The village of Cofradia de Cuyutlan is where we live. Locate Ruiz and Tuxpan near the bottom of the map, go directly north and look for Cofradia. Then, you'll be able to see where the other villages are located in relation to Cofradia. We are currently ministering weekly in three other villages as well: Arrayanes (north), Mojocuautla (northeast), and Santa Fe (east). This site, "maps-of-mexico.com" will give you maps just like these all over Mexico. It's pretty interesting.

The Talk of the Town

I'm not sure how far this news will go out, probably just local, maybe it will make it statewide.

Yesterday, a truck full of merchandice...food, etc. for the little stores in the area, was distributing on it's normal route. I actually saw the truck as I was picking up youth in Arrayanes for music practice. It was at one of the stores there, and the policeman that rode with the truck was sitting alongside the front of the store. They have a policeman for protection because this area is known for people robbing drivers of their money.

I arrived in Cofradia after music practice about two hours later. I saw a police truck driving pretty fast and thought it was odd...however, they do drive fast just because they can sometimes. A little while later, I went up to the church and there were a number of police trucks and a hurst in front of the clinic...next door to the church. Come to find out that some Indians in the area had tried to rob the truck on its way down from Agua Aceda (an Indian village where we occasionally minister). The truck got shot at, but didn't stop. The policeman died and the driver was hit, but he made it to the clinic. I don't know any more about the situation, just that it was the talk of the town last night...and today.

Kitchen Cabinets

I finally got around to taking pictures of our kitchen. We got the cabinets done and they are a real blessing.

Ruben Dario Garzon

Ruben turned 14 yesterday and last night we went to his house to have Tamales. He is a really neat kid and is always very happy. He plays the keyboard in the youth band and his dad is the Pastor of the Arrayanes church. For his gift, we gave him a great big bag of chips...he's always eating chips.

Newsletter

You can now find our latest newsletter on the Alternative Missions website. Click here.

New Furniture!

We got our new furniture. The carpenter actually came to our house to deliver it, no extra charge. We are just over an hour away...that's a long ways for a family of four plus grandpa to come in a small single cab nissan pickp-up! The bookshelf ($90) will go in my office and the closet ($145) is for Rebecka. The curtain rods and Gena's shelf for her salon weren't finished (typical).

"Penny Wars"

Sunday evening in Arrayanes we presented their youth group as winners of "Penny Wars" with a trophy. The title, "Penny Wars", doesn't work in spanish, so we call it "La Guerra de los Centavitos" which means, "The War of Cents". It's a fun and competative way to raise money for the youth. I got this idea off of Egad Ideas' website, there's lots to find there.

Doll Chair

We were unpacking one of our boxes the other day and we found a doll's chair that my parents' neighbor, Dan Maryott, made and gave to us. We brought down a number of them to give away and kept this one. Rebecka decided that she would use the chair for herself and let the dolls find their own chair. :)

Sunday

Our normal routine on Sunday is at 7:30am I go to the church to set up all the instruments with the band and practice some of the songs we will be doing. That usually lasts about an hour. Then we have our main service that starts at 10am and usually get home around 12-12:30pm.

After lunch we try to rest a bit in our bedroom...air conditioning is a true blessing! Then at 4pm myself and a couple others go to Arrayanes for the church service out there that starts at 5pm. I usually get back around 7-7:30pm. Gena and Rebecka stay here. Gena is taking our "New Life" class with the adults in the evenings here in Cofradia.

Today is pretty normal, however, I usually don't post or get on the computer. I have a few things I need to get down and I know I won't have the time to do them all. I did get my 30 minute power nap in though! PTL!!! I just made some starbucks coffee (by the way, I'm running out) and sat down at the computer.

Rhythm...Can You Teach It?

If you read this, please give me your insight...

Is there hope in learning and instrument for those who don't have rhythym? How do you teach it?

It's Definately the Rainy Season

We had another great rain last night. It thundered quite a bit in the distance, only one was close enough to make our lights flicker. The rain no longer drips through the ceiling, however, a bunch of water creeped it's way through the windows into the living room and dining room last night. We are planning on putting a porch on the front of the house that will cost us at least $2000. We have $1500 saved up, just need the rest. But where most of the water is coming in is where we want to put the carport. We don't know how much it will cost, but I imagine it will be at least $5000 with the cost of steel today. Once we get the front porch and carport done, we'll be able to tear down the flimsy wooden temporary trailer carport where we have the truck parked right now. It would be nice to get this done as soon as possible because with the winds coming, it's not the best place to have our new truck...the termites are plentiful. We got the water all mopped up in the house and we woke up to the precious smell of mildew. Praise the Lord, we will always have something to do.

Muggy Morning

It rained last night so this morning is nice and muggy. I took a shower and five minutes later I was sweaty and I hadn't done a thing! Anyway, all for God's glory, right!

Last Saturday Gena and I started our level 3 for the youth in our discipleship program. 10 of the 11 graduates of the previous level will be taking the class. My prayer is that they all maintain their enthusiasm. It was a surprise to see a couple of them arrive because we met at 7:30am and since there is no school, they're now used to getting up around 10am or later. That was also encouraging because it shows dedication.

On Sunday, we started level 1 with some youth in Sunday School and the adults in the evening. The Arrayanes chruch will start tonight and their youth will start next Sunday. Things are moving right along and this is something very exciting to me because to me this helps a lot of people to dig deeper into the things of God and develop healthy habits.

Yesterday we went to Tepic and ordered some rustic furniture (dresser/closet; bookshelf--my office is in tremendouse need of one) and a couple other smaller things. We found a carpenter who will make this stuff pretty inexpensive.

Back at the computer today and getting things ready for the week and weekend. Now that we've started the discipleship program, there's lots of "homework" to do.

Gena's beauty salon

A couple of days ago, we moved our stuff out of what was an extra bedroom for the meantime and Gena now has her beauty salon. What you see here is all she has, we plan on getting her a real chair and a small shelf to put under the mirror. This has been a big blessing because cutting hair in the wind isn't always the funnest.

In the 80s

The weather has been great the past few days. It only got to 90 today and last night it got down to the high 70s. The rain that has come has cooled things down a bit. That usually happens in July, then August and September roll around and things don't get much better, for me those are the worst months. Thank you for your prayers for our health, we are all feeling a little better.

Work project update

This is the privacy wall that Canyon Hills worked on. They did a great job and were able to finish most of it. We have a couple of workers finishing it up. This will be great to have a little more privacy in the church services. Sometimes people find it hard to express themselves freely when the town is watching them. It will also reduce distractions of vehicles and people calling in during services. Thank you Canyon Hills.

Prayer

Please pray for the health of our family. Gena has not been feeling well for the past few days, Rebecka has been coughing at night the past couple of nights, and I've had a headache for the past couple of days and this morning I woke up in pain. I have worship practice in a couple of hours and I don't feel real well. Thank you for your prayers.

The beach

Rebecka and Luis

On Monday, Gena went to the beach with the team and took along Norma (Gena's brother's wife) and Rebecka and Luis (Rebecka's cousin).

Cofradia

This is a shot of Cofradia from one of the hills nearby. The church property is just behind the building with a red roof in the center. Our house is not shown. It is behind the bush on the left.

Electricity

The Electricity guys finally came last evening. They fixed the loose connection we had so now the whole house has electricity. Now we're just waiting for a bigger transformer to be put in up the street because of our neighbor who welds. It should be here anytime.

Newsletter

We finally got our newsletter out last week. Thanks to my parents, who give so much time and effort into the hardcopies back home. We appreciate all their hard work. Our email newsletter went out on July 2nd. It will soon be posted on the Alternative Missions website. On that site, you can also look up our past newsletters to get a little bit of history if you've missed one or two. Keep the encouragement coming. We love and pray for all of you.

Canyon Hills Kids Club

Every morning as half of the team is working on the wall, the other half is doing a kids club in the church. There has been quite a good turnout now that there school is out.

Canyon Hills Work Project

The work project for this team started out looking like this. I'll send some more pictures when they leave to show you how much they've accomplished. They are doing a great job tearing down a section of the old chain link fence and starting a brick wall.

Canyon Hills Community Church Missions Team

The team has been here for full days now working on a brick wall that will go along side the church property and at the same time some are doing a VBS with the children. In the evenings we've been going out to different villages. They have a puppet show, drama, singing, etc. Their first night we went to Agua Aceda, an Indian village about 7 miles up into the mountains. It was a lot of fun to see the people again and play with the children. Last night we went to Las Pilas. That's the town just before Cofradia as you come in from the Interstate. Tonight we'll be going back up into the mountains, but to Mojocuautla. Our last team went up there as well.

Rotary Hammer Drill

Many times people ask us what our needs are. One of the things we do here in Cofradia is a lot of construction. At the moment, the team that is here is tearing down a chain link fence and putting up a brick wall along side the church property. Last spring, both of the church's Rotary Hammer drills got burned out. They make jobs a lot easier and are very, very useful here. We need another one. Please let us know if you know someone who could help us out in getting one, or if you, yourself could. This is a much needed item because we use them all the time. Can you help?

Visitors

Rebecka's friends Daniela and Aylin are here right now visiting. They are sisters that love to play with Rebecka. They are all watching Shrek together.

Electricity

Something that we've been battling for the past few days is lack of electricity. The town has electricity, but our connection to the house is loose and I don't want to play with hot wires...especially as I'm sweating on an alluminum ladder. We went to town yesterday to see if they would come out and fix it, they said they would, but it's not fixed. We weren't here most of the day, so we don't know if they showed up. I'm not sure about how the electricity works in the states, I hear it's a little different. But we have four lines that run by the house on our street. One is nuetral that is also used for ground, and three are hot. We have hooked up to two of them in order to have 220 power. We have the capability of using welders and such, but the main purpose for the the two lines is that here, one line might have power while the other line still has power. So we wired the house with two lines, at the moment, only half of the house has power because of the loose connection. I had to change a couple of things in order to have the most important stuff plugged in, but it'll be nice to have the two lines again. We already have insufficient electricity because of the transformer that's up the street. The Power Company is hopefully going to be puting a new one in that will be able to handle and produce more power. There is a guy up the street as well that is starting a welding business and when he welds, the lights go dim, the tv goes dim, many things don't work like they're supposed to. Anyway, this is just one of the crazy things of life in Mexico.

Getting Ready

We've been getting ready for another team that arrives tonight. They are from the Bothel/Mill Creek area...Canyon Hills Chirsitan Church. Jay, Gollo and I got the property ready this morning and I had instrument practice with some of the youth. We have a couple of new students on the drums and bass. I'll be up at the church again at 1:30 for another round of practices for the students that have classes in the morning. School is out, but some have to make up for lost time and others have to attend because they're entering into Secondary school.