A night under the stars

Last night it was the girls' turn to use Brian's telescope. We saw Jupiter with it's four moons, the moon itself and a galaxy.

My favorite part of the whole night was when Blanca was looking at the moon through the telescope. I could see the bright light of the moon reflecting on her eyeball, as she whined, "But I can't see it." I was trying to help her figure out the problem, when I asked, "Blanca, what do you see?" She replied, "All I see is a bright circle with a bunch of holes." She had been looking at the moon the entire time! ;)

Cafe Crazy

On Wednesday the kids came home and announced, "WE DON'T HAVE CLASSES TOMORROW!" Sometimes when they don't have school, it can make for a long day, so Gloria and I were talking about setting up a "restuarant" for dinner. The idea continued evolving, until we decided that it would be a mystery dinner and everything would be different than what the kids are used to. They came in and had to find their seat, looking at backwards name cards. Each place had a utensil that the child was supposed to eat with and then they each chose from menus with nonsense items. Some of the staff here were the servers.

It was so funny as the kids tried to guess the food items and were so excited about each course that came out. When the meal was nearing the end, we had a boy vs. girl eating competition. One girl would come up against one boy and they would face a food challenge, (crackers, watermelon, chocolate, water, lime, peppers, etc...) Yaneli and Daniel, (our children missing their 2 front teeth) raced to eat an apple. :) The kids loved cheering on their teammates! The boys won the competition, but the girls were not far behind. Lupita attacked her lime with such surprising tenacity, that I would have her represent me in a food eating competition any day! Angel discovered that his cookie scoop was a great launcher for flipping his noodles from his chicken noodle soup, and we decided Jose might do better with a huge shovel everyday. :)

Not everyone loved the night...refer to the below blog entry. :)

Not everyone loved "Cafe Crazy"

So Paola was really excited about the surprise, but then she saw that her seat was a block and the crying started. (Many of the kids had crazy seats, booster seats, logs, etc.) It also happened to be her turn to pray and she tearfully prayed, "Lord, help the workers not to be so crazy and make me sit on a block." She was happier when she realized that she had asked for potato chips and not crackers.

To the cross...

This morning Nicole and I hiked to la cruz or "the cross." The cross was put on a mountain top by Catholics, (I don't know how many years ago.) It is beautiful to look up on the hillside and see the white cross standing tall. Animism is rampant here. (Thanks to Kevin I can pull out that word) The worship of objects is so strong, for example, a cross, that to Christians can be a reminder of Jesus' death on the cross, has become an idol, something that you pray to, or maybe it is a picture of a saint or a candle of the virgin...In one of my neighbors houses, the walls are full of crosses, pictures of saints, calendars of what saint to pray to each day, she is doing everything "right", but I have met few people that carry as much anxiety as she carries.

If you turn while you hike, there is a breathtaking view of the city of Magdalena, as it lays in the valley. Sitting up on the cross, Nicole and I reflected how quiet and peaceful everything looked. We could see the plaza, the church, the schools and rows of houses. It seemed like a picture of tranquility, when really the city is full of hurting people, without the hope of the Lord. God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah. That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. Psalm 67:1-3

On a total side note: I don't know why I took a picture of this cow...there is all kind of wandering livestock. Nicole and I were just laughing at how hearty this cow has to be to be up on a mountian, grazing on cactus.

Snakes are awful

We have the recent addition of a pony here on the property, the kids enjoy it immensely. The pony is being lent to us by a nice Mexican man, but Emily helps the kids ride. Of course the boys want to run it to it's death, but so far, Spree seems to be thriving.

We have great tree houses here, one for boys, one for the girls, yet the kids still love to make their own "casitas." This one was built the other day and now has a fence around it and the piece of plywood that said "Greetings" now says, "Danger." Boys will be boys.

Blanca is pictured playing in the dirt, always living in her own little world. I guess that makes her easy to entertain. :)

This seems to be the season of rattle snakes. We have only found small ones, but that is enough for me. And where you see a baby, there has to be a ticked off mama nearby with the rest of her children. Joe ran over this baby rattler with the mower. He cut of the rattle and then put it in the freezer, so we now have a frozen snake...It makes me think of the time Chad and Jay put their trap line catches in the basement freezer.

"We heard we could get food here"

Saturday mornings here remind me of Saturday mornings at home, everyone has their jobs and they have to finish them all before they can play. I was journaling and "managing" from the porch. Andres (3 yrs)walks up to me and starts telling me about his dad. (We don't think he can realistically remember any kind of dad.) He started, "Amy, tomorrow, my dad, who is a cowboy is going to come and bring his Bible to read it. And you know what else? He is going to bring you a table and chairs. Did I tell you he is a cowboy?" It was another wake-up call to me of the reality of these chilren as I listened to this little boy who is very loved here, still want the security of having his "own dad" so bad that he imagines what he is like.

A neat side ministry that has come to us at CVE is brought by the railroad tracks that run alongside the property. (The tracks run from in the states to further South in Mexico) All kinds of vagabonds wonder by, see the Casa Vida y Esperanza sign and come wandering in, asking for food/help. Many are men who have tried to cross the border and failed or have been deported. Sometimes the wanderers are from another Central or South American country and they are planning on returning on foot. This morning two men came by and knocked on Jenna's door. Nothing was unusual about this, but then they said, "we heard we could get food here." It is awesome that God gives us the opportunity to minister to these wanderers with all kinds of different pasts as they see the arch announcing Vida y Esperanza or Life and Hope and they know this is a place they can get help. Usually we can go to the fridge in the kitchen and serve a plate of beans, rice and tortillas, but the fridge was just cleaned out and all Jenna could find was last night's leftover pizza and bananas. Jeff sat and talked with them as they ate and they left with Bibles in hand. The Lord is faithful in providing abundant opportunities at our doorstep. Galatians 6:9-10 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

Dad, the last picture is the sweet corn crop on it's 13th day. It is looking pretty good, huh?

One of our many bundles of joy-Timi

Many pictures have been posted of Timi, but if you meet the child, you would know why. He just climbs into your heart. He has recently started telling Jenna when he has to go to the bathroom and gets whisked off, regardless of his activity. In this photo he was in the middle of lunch. :)

Some of the kids have a cold right now, and Timi may be at the top of that list. He is really a happy child, you just can't tell it from this picture. I don't want DIF to get ahold of this, or they might shut the place down. :)

Viva la Mexico!

I have come to the conclusion that overall, Mexicans are more patriotic than Americans. We just recently celebrated Mexico's Independence Day (Sept 16). The night before the actual day, in every town in Mexico, some official holds the "Cry of Dolores" and they shout, "Viva la Mexico!" or "Long live Mexico."

We decided that trying to keep track of 23 kids on crowded plaza streets was enough reason to plan our own Independence Day celebration. Some of the girls decorated the cafeteria and then we made a traditional Mexican supper for the kids. Afterwards, we went out to the volunteer dorms and had a bonfire and a campout. The kids had a great time and were FULL of energy. (Partly because as it was a holiday, we did very little to limit their food/sugar consumption.) We sang, the impatient kids burned marshmallows to a crisp in attempt to "roast them," the kids found two old mattresses which they used to perform acrobatics, and we all stayed up too late. It was a great time.

VISITORS!

Last weekend, mom and dad along with Mark and Barb Gerber came down to visit CVE. They chose a great time to come and visit as it has been rainy season and because of the hurricane, it has rained even more than usual and the desert is in bloom. The time with them went really fast as they flew in on Thursday and left on Saturday, but was such a blessing.

Joe and Denise kept them, and they apparently had a great time as they would eat breakfast for hours. :) They spent time with the kids, painted, sewed, fixed things, hung things on walls, trimmed bushes, planted corn, went out to eat, chatted about everything, etc, etc, etc.

Mark had the opportunity to talk with Carlos, a man who has been coming to church. Carlos has made the decision to follow Christ and Mark spent time counseling with him. Praise the Lord for Carlos' conversion! Please be prayerful for his decision and that his wife would soon follow.

I had to put up a picture of my bathroom color. Dad picked out the shower curtain. I know, Mike Fiechter! Isn't it great!

My apologies for putting up four posts in one day, I just can't wait for you to hear about everything that happened while the internet was down!

Mark, I was so excited to post this, especially because five minutes after my first post of four today you had commented!

"All I want for Christmas..."

Daniel (6) and Yaneli (?) (We think 6) both just lost their front teeth. Yaneli has a crush on Daniel, so she was so excited to pose with him for this pictures. :)

The other night we had "elote" which is their equivalent of sweet corn. It is actually field corn that you boil and then saturate in salt, mayonase, and butter. If you get it in the pueblo, they also put fresh powdered cheese on it. Gloria told me that in Michoacan, the people don't like sweet corn as much as they like elote...I remain to be convinced. Whew, I got off track, but the original point of the story is that after a fair amount of struggling, we finally had to cut Yaneli's and Daniel's off the cob.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO EVERYONE!

This has been the season of birthday celebrations. The kids love it though, because a birthday means that they get cake and get to smash someone elses face in it. Carissa got her face smashed in a cake on August 31st. Gloria followed on September 9th.

We had a 15th birthday party for Elizabet. (Her family goes to church here) In Mexico, a girl's fifteenth birthday is hugely celebrated. I just read an article that the cost of quinceñeras is now rivaling weddings, so our celebration was very modest in comparison, but it was neat to celebrate with her. Bill read Numbers 6:24-26 in her honor.

Last night I went with Nicole to a birthday party of a four year old boy, Orlando. I didn't really know him, it was a cousin of a friend. :) (That is how it works here, come one, come all.) After a great meal and the kids played games, the adults had a few lively rounds of musical chairs. I didn't think it could get any funnier than watching grown men fight over seats as they played musical chairs, but then it was the ladies' turn to play. I proceeded to sit down in the same chair some other woman was trying to sit in and the chair gave way in the presence of 70+ strangers. Not something I will soon forget.:)

The second round of crops

The kids' first attempt at gardening plots was such a success, (minus the wandering cow and huge jackrabbits who found everything delicious) that the second round was planted. Overall, the boys like to work the ground. I think the person who likes it the most is Jeff. Also, dad was out sowing seeds also. I guess it just goes to show that you can't take the farmer out of someone.

Bill was found "outstanding" in the field. (I know that was a really bad pun, but Bill will appreciate it.)

Dad has requested that I put updates of the corn on the blog, so, I will attempt to do so every once in awhile. So far nothing to exciting has come up, but I haven't looked for a day or two. I'll get on it dad. :)

We don't have internet

Hey everyone, I am at Joe and Denise's to write this blog entry, just so you don't think I am neglecting the blog, our internet and phone have not been working...I am not sure when we will get it back, but I will update you when we are up and running.

Mark and Barb Gerber are here with my mom and dad for the weekend. It has been fun to have them here, although the weekend is flying by! They have been helping me settle in my new room (which now is the exact same color teal with 'a GREEN bathroom) Barb made me some great curtians, I feel very spoiled.

More to come...

It's September?

September in Mexico brings a flooding of red, green and white, (the colors of the Mexican flag) as they celebrate their independence day on September 16th. The "palacio" equivalent to our court house is decorated to the max. I must admit it is a little sad to realize that September is going to pass without the leaves turning colors and without feeling that crisp, fresh fall air.

I just took these pictures of the kids...Gloria said someone must have given them chocolate. They all fell because they were crawling their pyramid closer to me. It was so funny!

Along with the change in the month comes a big change for me. I moved into campus today so I am able to work as a girl's caretaker alongside Gloria. I am still going to give Spanish lessons also. I am very sad to leave the community and all my amazing neighbors and freedom to come and go as I please. I also lost my teal room, but Joe and Denise bought me more paint. :) I feel completely inadequate and unprepared for this role working with troubled girls, but know that God can show Himself all the more powerful. We are now at ten girls in the dorm, so that is plenty to stay occupied. Please pray as Gloria and I adjust to working so closely together in these roles and that I can be strong as the girls put me through a time of "testing." My mom recently made the comment that parenting is not for the faint of heart, and I agree. :)