No Dad, the corn is not dead

I received this e-mail today from dad.

Ames,
Did the corn die?
Love, Dad

I know when dad e-mails during harvest, it is a big deal. ;) So, for all the farmers who dream of two crops a year, our corn is growing. I took the picture from a good angle, so it is maybe falsely representing the overall health of the patch.

Moises

Probably one of the cutest kids I have ever seen. We always laugh because he has huge hands and feet. I predict he is going to be a very tall man.

Magda was released!

Praise the Lord, Magda is finally home after a few days in the hospital. She is walking like a little old lady b/c of her appendicitis incision, but I know she is glad to be home. As soon as we arrived, all of the girls came running to help. Magda was really tired after moving so much and so Lili is reading a Junie B. Jones to her. After she was on painkillers, Magda spent a lot of time coloring. I told Gloria she almost finished the whole book, but it just seemed like that much time had gone by.

The middle picture is of our 4 year old roommate in the hospital. She was a doll, except for when I was watching her and she woke up and was so scared her mom wasn't there, that she peed the bed. :) Gloria and I had a lot of time to talk with the mom (Guadalupe) and I am excited to see where God takes the friendship.

Please pray with us for the health of the children. We were so thankful to have Jaqueline back with us and glad not to have someone in the hospital, but then Magda got sick. I think we have all had enough of hospitals for awhile. The kids recently memorized Isaiah 55:8-9 and I think this sums up events nicely around CVE. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

The orange shorts

They finally ripped. I know, it was a sad day here. Armando's favorite outfit is a shiny pair of bright orange basketball shorts and a tanktop of the same fabric. Because of the colder weather, we haven't seen as much of the top, but the shorts have stayed a favorite. The other day we noticed that his shorts were pulled up high and he had his sweatshirt tucked in...that's right, there was a large hole running down the back. He wore them again the next day, and we finally convinced him to change while we tried to fix them.

Armando's love interest at this time is Magda (pictured center, in purple). Magda came home from school with a fever and had vomited during school. At about 7:00 pm she went in to the emergency room where they did testing and admitted her overnight. They discovered that she has a severe kidney infection. Please be prayerful for her and that she can be released today.

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.

Kristen, Chad and Jay flew in on Saturday morning to spend the weekend down in sunny Mexico...only they brought clouds with them. Kind of unfortunate, but we had a great time! It went so fast, but we managed to hang out with the kids, hike, sleep and a whole lot of eating and soccer! They brought me a surprise and part of it was a corn cob shaped coffee cup to remind me of home. ;)

They all quickly made friends here, I was so excited to have them meet the kids. The CVE boys wanted to take on Chad and Jay in competitive soccer, the winners got chocolate. The older guys team smoked the kids/girls team...

While they were here, my toilet started leaking, severely. Jay was on the mattress closest to the bathroom door and we joked that he might float away during the night. Kris, Chad and Jay, just so you know, Joe did fix it and I no longer live in the swamp land.

I am kicking myself now, but we didn't take very many pictures...oh well, the memories will have to live on!

Jenna said she is never leaving again

Jenna recently had a day off and the little girls asked if they could babysit the little boys. They told me they had a surprise for me, but I had to wait. The little boys came out looking rather like...little girls. Andres is all boy, but he really liked the dress. Jenna said that if she can't trust us to watch them better than this, she isn't going to leave again. :)

Psalm 91

We at CVE are going through a stretching situation and we would ask your prayers. Jaqueline has not been well and has been in a hospital in Hermosillo (two hours South of us) since Tuesday night with Gloria and Nicole. Please pray for her healing in God's time and that we would have so much wisdom through this situation. When we were at the beach Jenna did some inspirational photography, and I feel like right now the phrase, "Hard is good," is applicable to all of us through this situation.

The Baptisms

I know I haven't posted awhile, we have had an hubbub of activity around here. This weekend our church had our first baptisms. Katy and John Schick were baptized in front of many Mexican and American witnesses. It was a wonderful blessing to be a part of this HECTIC weekend. :)

The night after the baptisms six of the CVE girls here made a beginning of trusting in the Lord. What an exciting time here, we covet your prayers. :) For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Psalms 57:10

Kristen, Chad, and Jay are coming on Friday! I can hardly wait!

Found

The police found the boys, Praise the Lord. Please continue to pray for them. It is exciting to think about them using their gifts for God's kingdom someday.

The little daredevils

Recently the rollerblades, bikes, skateboards, and the "boogie" have come out strong. We have many daredevils, and when you put this many kids together they are constantly "raising the bar" (or hula hoop in our case.)






Armando and Daniel were showing off their roller blading abilities and when the camera came out, they started jumping off steps, the dismount wasn't always successful, but that didn't deter their efforts. :)





Yaneli recently learned how to ride a bike, but now she has moved on to a large bike that she has to stand up to pedal.

Bill has this problem

Every time he changes one of the little boys, they reenter the room with their pants pulled up like the picture demonstrates.

A crazy weekend

Heather and Katy arrived safely on Thursday and it has been nonstop fun ever since! (Cory Aschliman flew in on Thursday also to stay with Seth and Jeff for a week.) Seth and Brandy Beer joined us on from Phoenix on Friday night and we dragged a couple of mattresses in my room for a slumber party.

On Saturday we drove from restaurant to restaurant as I wanted them to experience all of my favorite places. Jeff was able to hang out with us also for part of the day and he suggested seafood in coconuts. That was our appetizer for a day of continual eating. :) We joke that Jeff can always eat, and we saw his amazing ability as he ate a large amount of the seafood. (I just cannot make myself like octopus.)

Timi fell in love with Heather at first sight and most of the little girls had a crush on Seth.

Tomorrow Carissa and I are taking Heather and Katy to Tucson, after some bordertown shopping.

I don't have much more to say, b/c I only have one night left with the girls and we have A LOT more eating to do. ;)

P.S. If any of you are thinking of coming and visiting me, you don't have to sleep in my room. We can work out something else. :)

If you don't go anywhere...

...you never get a welcome home party. :) The kids have had tuesday and Wednesday off school and all day Tuesday the girls planned a "surprise" party to welcome Gloria and I home. The party was complete with party dresses (or whatever the girls could find in storage.) The night ended in a large pillow fight that even the boys joined. At night Eli prayed, "And Lord, please don't let our heads be swollen tomorrow."

Heather Furrer and Katy Schlipf are coming tomorrow! I am so excited!

Where the desert meets the sea

Population 5000. Bahia de Kino is a quiet fishing village located on the coast of Sonora. The girl staff here at CVE recently had the opportunity to go over night to the beach. There are three beaches within reasonable distance, and the guys had scoped out Bahia de Kino earlier this summer. We decided to head there because it was the least touristy (also the cheapest!) So, Gloria, Nicole, Jenna, Carissa and I packed the back of the suburban Sunday afternoon and came back on Monday night. The staff that remained graciously stayed behind to cover for us. :)

Bahia de Kino is a small fishing village and as you arrive, there is literally a mountainous desert to the right and a beautiful sea to the left. It is amazing. We arrived at the beachfront condos the guys had told us about and no one was there, so we left, and when we ate and came back, there was an open room for us, but no electricity (supposedly nowhere on the coast). So we bartered for awhile and then bought the room with the agreement that "perhaps" the electricity would come back on and if not, we would get a better deal. Praise the Lord, it turned on before the end of the hour.

We walked the beach at night, and were the only people out. The next day, it was only us and the fishermen on the beach. Actually, they were shrimp men on shrimp boats and and as Jenna says, "Shrimp men are just in a category of their own." After eating some amazing seafood, some fishermen took us out on their little seaworthy vessel, and we went around a mountainous island and we saw seals and pelicans up close and personal. During this, I had the privilege of wearing a life jacket meant for a 5 yr. old. :) We also passed by all the shrimp boats that were out. When the "captian" asked us if we would like to board a boat, we strongly considered it, but then took Jenna's advice into consideration, and decided that for our own safety, we should head back to shore. :)

After eating all the seafood we could manage, getting more sun than is good for us and walking A LOT of beach, we repacked the Suburban to head back to real life. It was a great trip.

The top picture was taken from the side of our condo. Amazing huh? So, if you didn't already have enough motivation to come visit Magdalena, now you know that there is a great and very cheap beach about 3 hours away. :)

Definitely time to church plant near on the beach!