Did You Know?

- You can thank Mexico for introducing the world to chocolate!
- About 25% of the world's Spanish speaking people live in Mexico!
- One New Year's tradition is to eat 12 grapes as the clock strikes 12, one for each month of the coming year.
- Over 100 million tortillas are eaten in Mexico PER DAY!
- Over 1/3 of the population is 14 years old or younger
- Cats have 7 lives, the "unlucky" day is Tuesday the 13th, and they do April Fool's type pranks on December 28th!
- There are about 62 indigineous languages that are still spoken.
- Mexico used to claim it's territory all the way up to & including Alaska.

Fun at my House

Ada, Emily, Yoshi

Some of my friends, other single missionaries and a few of the Bible School students, got together at my house for some fun.

Church friends

Judit Vargas, Saraí Vargas, Sarahí Morales, Rubén Vargas, Luisa, & myself
This area is a big cattle area and every year the state holds a Cattle Expo. It's like a state fair. There's rides, food, stuff to buy & a rodeo. We went to the rodeo finals. Most of these guys hadn't been to a rodeo before. It was really fun. I kinda felt like I was back home in Texas with all the horses & cowboys & cowgirls around!

Paty

Paty Ramírez
She is our Spanish teacher. They are working on getting another teacher to help with the influx of students in the next few months. She is hard working and dedicated. It thrills her to see us speaking her language and she gets really excited when we speak correctly! It's very encouraging.

Spanish Class

Spanish Class
This is where I go in the morning to attend a class taught by Paty Ramirez. Currently, there are about 10 of us. Two more families are coming before the end of the year & some more are coming in the new year. There are quite a few missionaries coming here who have not been able to be in Venezuela. I'm still pressing on to be finished in a few months.
L-R: Lyle Mack (wife Sandy not in the picture), John & Cindy Whylings, myself, Maria VanWormer (husband John is probably flying this day - he's a pilot here, but working on Spanish also), and Kelly Groteniek (her husband, Wolfgang, is also a pilot)

A few more kids

A few of the kids

Yoshi Castillo & Libni Ramirez, two Bible school students with whom I go to the orphanage with are in the back. Yoshi in pink & Libni in grey. Libni is my language helper & I help her with the class she teaches at the orphanage. This next week I'll be teaching for the first time.

Libni & Toñito

Libni is holding Toñito & that is Brisa behind them, making bunny ears.

Gaby

This is Gaby. She goes to our class also. She has 4 brothers & sisters in the orphanage with her. The whole family is beautiful. Her brother, Toñito, is in the picture above in blue. Libni is holding him. The youngest is a little girl, Josefina, smaller than Toñito, and two more are older than Gaby.

Manuel & Luis

These boys come to our class, which was originally for 5-7 year olds. Now, all ages go. Manuel, on the left is 14, is very mischievious & Luis on the right is about the same age. He's very good to correct my Spanish - not laughing or mocking when I make mistakes, but very helpful.
They both are very quick at grasping & understanding the lessons & are able to correctly answer review questions from the previous week. They also especially like it when we take candy with us!

Cielo

There is a set of twins, Cielo (Skye) & Brisa (Breeze). They are so sweet, full of hugs & love to spend time with you. They're about six. Brisa is in the group picture above.

Seeing the pigs!

Sorry these are late, I've tried twice since last post to upload the pics & the internet keeps failing. PTL, it worked tonight!
This was last week - we got to the orphanage & the directors were meeting with some Americans & the staff were behind. As soon as we got there, the kids took us to go see the two new pigs they got. (They're in the barn behind us in the picture.) Then they went to eat & we went back home.
This week, however, we were able to teach. We were also able to talk to Ed, the director (the kids call him Papa) about schedules & the best time to go teach. Please pray that we can get back into a regular schedule, to keep the lessons fresh in their minds.

Not this week!

Well, we weren't able to teach for the second week in a row. Yesterday & last week the directors were in meetings and not in charge of the kids, so things were a bit behind schedule. So the last two weeks they've just been sitting down to eat when we get there & then they go right into devotions as a group & then right to bed.
It was a bit discouraging to have it happen again. But, Lord willing, we will be able to teach again next week. The kids are really excited & capturing the message of the Bible. They love to learn & are disappointed when there is no class. They have learned quite a bit even though we've just begun to teach there!

Here are some pics like I promised!

Teaching at the Orphanage

Tonight I'm teaching for the first time at the orphanage! We're going through the Bible chronologically and I'll be teaching the story of Noah. The kids are split up in 3 classes by ages, but by now they just go to whichever class they want to - depending on the relationships they have with the teachers & helpers of the classes. So, I'll have kids anywhere from 4-17 years of age! Usually about 10-12 go to each class.

If you get this in time, please pray, I'm a little nervous.

I'll try to get some pics & post them this week.