Psalm 33:13-15

"The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works" Psalm 33:13-15

This verse reminds me that the Lord sees all the men in all the world. It's even more than that. He doesn't just "see" all the men, but He "looks" on them. That seems like seeing with intent. That seems like a continuous sort of thing. And it's definitely inclusive of all the nations. Well, all the inhabitants of the earth, anyways. I guess if you have a P.O. box somewhere other than earth, then it doesn't include you. He is considering you and me. And the guy out in the middle of the jungle in Brazil, or the one in the bush in South Africa. It's also comforting to know that He fashioned their hearts individually. Their hearts have His fingerprints on them. So, there must be those who are seeking Him. Our calling to the mission field is only to be used as vessels. He is going to do the work. I pray that He leads us to the ripened harvest.

1 week in Mexico

So we've been at the training school for 1 week now. Here's some of what we've been doing.

This is the van that the school has. Pretty handy, when it doesn't break down (which was only once so far). Always good to be flexible in the mission field. (Robin just said, "you know they got it fixed already." Praise the Lord!) The kids like it when we go somewhere. One day when we were driving Kilaine said to me, "mommy, the roads are bumpy in Mexico!" Yes, they are.
Our first Sunday and Wednesday we went to Calvary Chapel Xochimilo. We sat through the service and then rushed back to the base to have more classes on Sunday. On Wednesday we went again, but we didn't have to rush out quite so quickly.
This is across the street from the church. A big pile of trash. That black figure in the middle is a little girl digging around and playing in the trash. Last week we went to Colina de Luz, an orphanage in the area. We met with a missionary who is running it for some classes there. The kids enjoyed having a playground for a little while. Liam fell asleep on the picnic table. This is Maria Luisa with him. She is one of the people that watch the kids for us while we have our classes. It's really awesome, because the kids are forced to learn some spanish, since the workers don't speak english. They are getting along great.
This is the best shot I could get of the school from the road. It's pretty bumpy.

A beautiful sunset.
Thursday we had some time of worship at night with a bonfire. That was nice. Jeff Jackson was here that night.

Mexico has these murals around occasionally. Some of them are pretty amazing. It's characteristic of Mexico. It's just about the only thing I've seen that isn't covered in graffiti. I wish I could get a better picture of them. Most of my pics are taken while driving... I took this picture on our day off. We went to Rosarito to see the beach and walk around the market. We also went to have chili mangoes. They were pretty tasty.
Luke will have his birthday here next Sunday, so we bought a pinata and a ton of candy during our day out. And I mean, a ton of candy. There's always something about being in another country that makes us feel like we have liberty to eat a lot of candy. You know, there's just so many new kinds... no, but really, don't think we are blowing all our support money on candy! This was everybody's combined. I promise...

Last Sunday, we went to Calvary Chapel Rosarito, which is about 20 minutes away. The pastor gave me all their worship songs and the chords. That was a blessing.

This was a dove in the concrete at the Rosarito church. I thought it was cool.

That day we went to the taco stand. Liam liked taking pictures over by the mural. The food was pretty good, but was nothing compared to the tacos we ate on Saturday. That was our free day when we went to Rosarito. We ate at a little stand on the side of the road. Dangerous, I know, being in Mexico. But very delicioso!!!

A cool plant

Sunday afternoon, our ESL (English as a Second Language) class was cancelled. So we went to a quincenera at the local church. That's a pretty big deal. It's a celebration for when a young girl turns 15. She is turning into a woman. She dresses up in almost like a wedding gown and they have a fancy ceremony. The youth worship band from Calvary Rosarito came and played some worship songs. They were amazing. There was just 4 of them. It was good to see their excitement. (And I knew some of the songs!)

Just about everyday I homeschool Kilaine. We have a break from our classes from around 4 to dinner at 5:30. So, we go upstairs and do some lessons. That's usually when I get my clothes off the line and fold them, too. Just a little taste of our typical day in Mexico.

Tidbits of wisdom

We are at the missionary training school in Mexico for 3 weeks. We've had some great teachings so far. Our day is pretty busy. Today we are going to go to an orphanage for most of the day. More on that later.

Here's some thoughts that I want to share with you...

We don't go out to the mission field because there are a lot of lost people. No, it's because God is worthy to be known, worhsipped and obeyed.

We define mercy as what's most convenient to us. God defines mercy as what can love the most people. Like Joseph. He was put in jail unjustly. He cried out to the Lord and the Lord showed him His mercy. And left him in prison.

We learn about animistic thinking. That is the view that God is a spirit to be appeased. This is not how God is. Here's a way it can slip into our thinking... you make the commitment to do devotions every single day. Then one day, you miss, you just don't feel like doing it. That day, on the way to work you are in a car accident. Then you think to yourself that if you had only done the devotion, you would not be in the accident. This is animistic thinking. It's the view that you are attempting to manipulate the spirit world to get what you want. This is prevalent in many foreign countries, and even in our own, in a less obvious way. No. God is a sovereign God.

Some old wives tales... In Mexico, if you watch a dog poop, you'll get pink eye. In China, if you get a cold, the more people you give it to, the faster you get better because it's leaving your body. Hahahahaha.

The most important work is the work that He is doing in our lives. The more work that God does in you, it ups the amperage in your life, and the more people will be able to see that light and to see it clearly. (Sort of like a light bulb, we are, afterall, suppose to be the light.)

A missionary pastor here in Mexico was our teacher for one of the days. His name is Ron Brink. In November, he was attacked by his neighbor. He snuck up behind him here at the school and hit him in the head. He was knocked unconcious and spent several days in the hospital. When someone asked him if he was going to leave Mexico, he said, "I'm not going to let this guy decide what we do with our lives just because he hits me over the head. I'm going to do what God wants."

By the way, we went to church last night, the same church from Sunday. Before we left, Kilaine came and told me that she didn't want to go with me to the children's class that time. She said she wanted to go alone!!! Answer to prayer.

There is definite poverty here.

One of the buildings on the way to church.
Here's our classroom. It's good because 2 of the moms have small babies, and they are able to keep them in the class with us. That way, nobody gets left out.
Here's Isis, Kilaine, and Isa. Just today, I came around the corner and saw Kilaine & Isa together. Kilaine said to me, "Mommy, we are going to pray together. We are going to go somewhere really quiet." Later I asked her if they prayed. She said yes, and told me what they prayed about. It was pretty awesome. What a reminder of the impact that our lives have on our children.
This is Graham. He's going to Sri Lanka. Elena (2 1/2 yrs. old) likes it when he bangs on the pole. She puts her ear to it and listens to the sound it makes. We are all becoming family.
Osiris, a 13 year old Mexican boy likes going out in the field and catching camillions (sp?). (Don't worry, he doesn't wear pink, Isa is holding the animal! Ha ha) The kids love them. They are little horny lizard things. They're pretty cool.
The kids are having fun all together. There are 8 kids here from 9 down to 8 months old. Also, a little Mexican girl and boy are here a lot. Their parents are cooking for us everyday.
we do have a washing machine, praise the Lord, but the clothes hang on the line to dry. It's kind of fun hanging them up, I don't know if I'll still feel that way in 3 weeks or not... No, but really, it's good to be here, to begin living like we will in the mission field.
Yesterday morning, I got up early and went outside to have my study time with the Lord. I got to see the sun rising over the hills.

Mexico

Well, we have limited internet access. We are having tons of problems with our computer, so please be patient with the blog postings.

So, here we are in the training school. It's been pretty busy with classes all day. Sunday we went to the Mexican church. Kilaine had a really hard time. She didn't want to be with the kids at all. She sat with me the whole time. At the end, I did get her to say gracias to the teacher for getting a sucker. Please pray with me for her to have an easier time warming up to people. I am praying that next Sunday, she will participate in the children's class.

Our spanish is doing really great. Sometimes I have major mental blocks. You would think I didn't know a single word. Then other times it just flows. It is really good. We are learning a lot.

Some cute Kilaine sayings...

when it was really cold in Indiana, we were walking in the wind and she said it was so cold that it made her eyeballs freeze.
Then, when I told her about David and how he was a missionary in Peru like we were going to be, she got really excited that her skin was going to turn brown too! Hahahahaha!
On the plane, she wanted me to take a picture of her hand by the window so it looked like she was touching the clouds.
So cute!!!

I'm having trouble getting pics on the blog. Hopefully I'll be able to get some up later.

So, this is some from Ann Marie's house Thursday night..

(David, Ann Marie, Alex, me, Robin)
David was being silly with Kilaine's backpack.


So, we got up at 3am to get to the airport Friday morning. We had a layover in Dallas for a couple of hours.

So, we rode around for a while on the Sky Line people mover thingamajig. That was fun
Kathryn, Cole's mom, picked us up from the airport and let us stay the night at her house. We had some really awesome pie from Julian at "Mom's."
It was interesting to see the effects from the fires in California 3 years ago. Many of the trees are still dead and burned looking. There were a lot of houses burned during that fire.

some pics in Mexico

We're home!! (for a few days anyway)

Last Saturday, we went to the Mule Day parade with Brian and Tara. It was fun.

There was a shepherd there. It was cool to see the dog get control of the sheep. They obeyed the shepherd just by his wistle. It made me think of the Lord and how the sheep (us) know His voice. He is the Good Shepherd

The kids cuddled in by the building. It was cold and rainy.

They have the craziest dogs! One of them sits on top of the other one all the time. So funny.

On Sunday, we shared at Calvary Chapel Brentwood. Robin did the whole teaching. It was great to be there. My first trip to Peru was with a team of people from my church in Boynton, and this church in Brentwood. It was good to see everyone again.

Thank you Brian and Tara for all your hospitality (and home cooked bread! Yum!)

Sunday at about 5:30 we headed back to Florida.

We made it home Monday night at about 6:30.

On Wednesday we went to our home church for the service. During the worship when we were singing "Glory, glory, Halelujah..." the sun started shining through the cross beautifully. It's amazing to worship Him.

We met up with David Caplivski at church. He came up to visit with us. He just came back from Peru a few weeks ago. He was serving there with the church for the last 2 years. It has been great to see him again. He is staying with us (at Greg and Ann Marie's house --thank you) until tomorrow morning. He's going to drive us to the airport. We have to be there at 4 am. We are flying to Mexico for Shepherd's Staff's missions training school. We will be there for 3 weeks. I don't know if we'll have internet access or not, so you may not see any new postings for a while. But, we'll be back.

Almost the end...

We left last Sunday from Indiana and headed to Paducah, Kentucky to stay with Robin's brother and his family for 2 nights. Then, on Tuesday we left bright and early and came to Tennessee in the Nashville area. We had a meeting with the pastor at Calvary Chapel Rivergate first.

It was great getting to know Pastor Jerry. They have a great property where their church is. My mind was imagining all the great ministry that goes on there. They have a house back behind the church that is their youth room. It's painted really crazy inside. They call it their Bonzai House. And they have a lot of land where they could do camping retreats and things like that. What a blessing.

After our meeting, we headed to our friends' house, Brian and Tara Thacker. Brian went on my first missions trip to Peru. It was a joint team from Calvary Boynton in FL and Calvary Brentwood in TN. We've been here for a few days now. It's been good getting to see Brian again and really getting to know his family. They have 5 kids. I love being around big families. There's just something really special about it.

Liam and Daniel hanging out together.

Yes. This is the Mystery Machine. We saw it driving around in Brian and Tara's neighborhood. Crazy, I know.

Last night, we went to Calvary Murfreesboro. I got to help out a little bit with the worship. And of course, I got to do a spanish song, too.

Pastor Phillip let Robin teach, which was a blessing. He told us after the service that the church had been praying for years for God to send them a missionary to support. They had already been supporting some missionary organizations, like Gospel For Asia, but they were wanting to get behind a real live person, a face that they could see, someone being sent out from Calvary. It was really cool to realize that we were the answer to that prayer. God is good.

Today we visited with Brent and Danielle Campe. They had moved up here from Boynton a year ago. It was good seeing them. And, today is Liam's birthday! Since we already did cake, we stuck some candles in a cookie and sang to him. It was really cute.

On Sunday we will be sharing at Calvary Chapel Brentwood, and then later on Sunday, we will start heading home to South Florida for a few days. Next Friday, we fly to Mexico for an intensive missionary training school in Mexico. Shepherd's Staff does the training school. It will be 3 weeks long. More on that later.

Thank you to everyone for all your prayers, emails, and comments on the blog. It is good to know that people are thinking of us. We are getting really excited about going to Peru. It's going to come quickly.