What Happened to January??

Like you, I wonder how January slipped by so quickly? Things are very slowly getting back in gear here in Bernal. It seems that people are having a hard time returning from holidays and getting back to the normal.

We are excited to say that the walls of the Sunday School rooms are starting to go up. We have the block, cement and roofing for the rooms, so we wanted to get started. We don't have enough money for labor, so all of it will have to be volunteer work by church people. This past week Ciro and Lolita, and Richard, MinMin and I got some work done. Richard, Lolita, MinMin and I hauled 9 tons of block from the front yard where it had been delivered to the back yard or upstairs. Ciro started to lay the block.

We are hoping to have a small team of men here from Kansas in March, so would like to have the walls up by then so that they can help get the roofing done.

Church Christmas Party--more pictures

Church Christmas Party

Saturday night the church group got together for our Christmas party. In years gone by we have always had a potluck dinner of typical Mexican dishes, but this time the ladies wanted to do something different, so we had a hamburger fry. I made potato salad, we had chips and pop, and then coffee and a banana split cake for dessert.

Everyone had fun with the games, and especially the piñata. MinMin really enjoyed the piñata--she took to it like she had done it forever! It was hard to get good pictures with everyone moving about, but I'll post what I do have.

Ladies Christmas Party

A couple of weeks ago Martha and I were talking about some of the ladies who came to our painting class in years gone by. Though we often run into some of them, others we had not seen in awhile. We decided that we would have a Christmas party and invite them to come. We took invitations around to as many as we could find, and left invitations with those who thought they could tell another.

Last night we had 10 ladies here at our home for a time of visiting, an evangelistic devotional and good desserts. Both Martha and I had our cameras, but neither of us remembered to take pictures. All seemed to listen carefully to the devotional, and one lady, Nancy, said afterwards that she would like to talk more.

I made peach crisp, a brownie, banana and pudding cake, and apple pizza, and most of the ladies tried all three! I must say that they tasted pretty good. At the end of the evening a couple of the ladies said that they wanted to get together again next week, and make sure that they got the word out to the other ladies. This time they would organize it so that everyone was assigned to bring something, and that way it is more likely that they will not miss. So, we'll see if that happens.

Please be praying for Nancy, a young mother of a one year old boy, whose husband has just left her.

Two Months Ago Today.....

we met our daughter, Janelle MinMin at the Civil Affairs Office in Guangzhou, China. As most of you know, that was not an easy day for her, nor were the days to follow. It is so amazing to see the difference now, two months later. MinMin is a happy girl, is learning English, loves her brother and sister, and is happy to have big sister, Lancy, visiting right now. Though the beginning was hard, and we wondered how things were going to work out, we never doubted that God had chosen MinMin to be our daughter.

Four years ago this week we were first challenged by God to bring home another child for our family. It was not something that we had planned to do. Maybe there is someone, even one family, reading this post today who God would call to adopt. Watch the video that follows and be OPEN to God's still small voice calling you.....

China

A few pics of our favorite things in China on this trip. We really enjoyed seeing the rice terraces, and of course the Great Wall is an amazing place.

November 17th--God is Good, All the Time

Amazing how fast the year flies by! Only one week until Thanksgiving, and here in Bernal people are beginning to decorate for Christmas already. Since Thanksgiving is an American holiday, they don't have that here, so Christmas is coming and the decorations go up early.

We are thankful to say that we finally have all of the windows in the house as of last week, and six out of eight in the church. It was very cold here about three weeks ago, and people really suffered on Sunday morning with no windows. Giving was up as a result, and the man who does the windows went ahead and put them in although we still owe him another $200 or so. Of course, we have had 75 degree weather most days since then.....

Attendance is up on Sunday morning, which means that it is time to buy more chairs. We have 50 chairs now, and have had people standing for the last couple of weeks. Sunday school is still held in our house, as we don't have the classrooms built yet. We hope that that will be a possibility for next Spring.

Thursday night Bible study attendance is really up, and we have a great time of study and prayer. We are thankful to see more people attending, as it means that they are setting aside other things to be able to be there....making study and prayer a priority. Friday nights there is a teaching/preaching class, and quite a few are attending.

It has been a really busy year with the building program. We personally, as well as Gadiel and Martha, put in a lot of hours and effort in building. I think that we are all thankful to be able to be done for right now. Gadiel and Martha stayed in our home while we were in China in October, and have now moved into their own home. They still lack many finishing touches, but their house turned out really nice. We, too, are thankful to be moved into our new home. Before leaving for China we moved in, but pretty much just put things away as we could and stuffed things into closets. The last couple of weeks we have been trying to get things put away properly and get settled in.

As a family, we are all doing fine. Amanda is in Prague this week, and will be in Vienna next week. She is traveling with the handbell choir from her college, playing bells and her violin as well. I'm sure that she is having a great time. Caleb and Rose and family were able to visit with us for two days when we got home from China. Caleb was in Oklahoma for his work, so they all came, and drove on over to Missouri. Matthew and Crystal are in Branson, working. We are all excited that Lancy will be arriving in Mexico from Argentina on December 5th. She will be spending the month with us before heading up to the States. She hopes to be able to raise about $1200 a month support to be able to go to Thailand early in the year.

Here in Mexico the three youngest are doing fine, as well. Taylor and LiAnne keep each other busy when not doing school work. Taylor is in kindergarten this year, learning all of his letters, and beginning to do blends. He is pretty quick to pick it up. He also attends speech therapy on Fridays. MinMin is doing quite well. She usually has a smile on her face, and is a great help around the house. She seems to really enjoy doing dishes! She is learning many new things every day. We are quite pleased on how well she is fitting into the family. We also are sure that there will be many hard days to come. She is doing school as well, working on English classes, math, geography, cursive, and whatever else Mom can come up with that a person can learn without knowing much English.