Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Today is my Grandma's Birthday. She is 81 years old!

Thanks for everyone who was praying for her surgery. Please keep praying for her. She went through surgery well. She was in ICU I think for two days, then went to a regular room. A few days ago she was moved into a rehab place where she'll be for about a month.
Please pray for patience for her & that she might be encouraged by progress that she is making. I think she gets bored a lot and tired of being in a hospital room. I know she'd much rather be home.
Please pray that she would look to the Lord and find encouragement and rest in Him.

Next semester

This summer was a good training session. The director of the Spanish Course is going on furlough for about 6 months & has asked myself and another lady, Cindy Whylings, to run the Course til she gets back. There are 3 new couples starting this August semester & we'll have 4 students in an intermediate class (the ones that started in January), and then a few that are almost finished, 5 in the advanced class. 15 students in all! 4 of the families are planning Lord willing to work among some of the unreached people groups here when they finish Spanish.

This Summer

During the summer, the Spanish Course continues for those new to Mexico and studying Spanish. However, those who have been here a while and want to brush up their Spanish with a few classes are welcome also. This year we had quite a few summer students. There were even a few kids that came to have fun learning Spanish in a special kids class.
The director of the Spanish Course here travelled half the summer, so while she was gone I was left "in charge" and took over her grammar classes. I think it did more to help my grammar than any others. There is definately truth that the teacher gets more out of what he teaches than the students.
These are the teachers that helped out during the summer. With the extra students, we had to have a few extra teachers. Juan, Noel, Danny (regular teacher), Pati (regular teacher), Monica, and Erick, missing: Arehmi.
Several students had already taken off to take a quick trip to the US by the time we got this picture taken. This is most of the ones that I was with all summer, though.
At the end, we had a traditional Mexican meal, discada, to celebrate summer school's end. There is an endless variety of what you can cook in the disco, but we had hamburger, ham, bacon, onion, green peppers, and jalapenos. That together with fresh corn tortillas made an excellent meal.
Ron, Zack, (full time Spanish students) talking with Danny (teacher) and Tad (summer students, principal of missionary school).

Open Heart Surgery

This morning, at 7:15 CT my Dad's mom, is having open heart surgery to replace a valve. She will then be in ICU for several days, then regular hospital stay for a few more days, then after that, she'll be going to rehab. It will be a long recovery. She'll be 81 on the 29th. Please pray for the surgery: both my Grandma and the surgeons, and for the recovery: for patience and peacefullness for my Grandma. Thanks so much.

And sometimes He uses other peoples' husbands

Here in Mexico, I am alone. I don't have a father, or a brother, or a husband. The Lord is my husband. He is very faithful to take care of me. Many times, He reminds me to do something, like set my alarm before I got to bed! Or, sometimes, when I do forget to set the alarm, or sleep through it! He wakes me up in time to be on time for class, etc. There are many little things like that the Lord does to take care of me.

Sometimes, though, he uses other people to take care of me. One example is cars: I don't know too much about them. I have common sense and know a little bit, so I faithfully take care of checking tire pressure, oil levels, and other fluid levels. And I wash it. That's about the extent of my knowledge about cars. Oh, and I think I could change a tire if I need to. My dad taught me a long time ago, and I think it's a pretty logical process, although I don't look forward to it.

One of the things I've been doing here lately is helping new missionary families arriving in Mexico. Two are here & the third family comes in two weeks. I was taking one of the couples around looking at a few houses when they first arrived so they could find one to rent. As we drove along, I turned right and drove right over a glass bottle, smashing it with by one of my back tires. Everything seemed okay, so I continued to the house we were to see which was only a few blocks away. When we got there, the husband got out and checked my tire(s). I had kinda already forgot about running over the glass. :( The tires where fine, no glass punctures, but he notices the tires were getting warn down and told me I needed to rotate my tires. (Now this was something new, I had heard about rotating tires, but I didn't realise how important it was nor did I know that I was supposed to do it every 6 months! I had had the car for 15 months without rotating the tires, yikes!)

So, the next morning I went into a tire shop recommended by another missionary who knows about cars to get my tires rotated. The tire guy had got two tires switched and went to work on the third one when I got called back to check out the tire. It had a bulge in it. Yikes, I know that's bad, because it can explode on you, which is worse than just a flat tire. So, he put that tire back where it was, in the back, because he said a tire with a bulge needs to be on the back. He put the last tire back on. I wanted to consult someone with more car experience than I before I made an decisions about what to do. So, I prayed and tried to drive carefully on my tire with a bulge.

The first guy I asked said, "Yes, a tire with a bulge is bad. You will have to buy a new tire." The next guy said, "You should probably buy 2 tires, and put the two new tires in front to keep the tires even in pairs. But I can't recommend what to buy. I don't know that much about tires."

So, I came home, praying that the Lord would keep my tires from exploding until I got back to the shop. I called my mom over the internet in PNG and got my dad's email address at work. I told him the problem and my options for tires and he was able to recommend the brand I should get and told me that yes, Man #2 was right, I needed to buy 2 tires to have a matched pair in front and put the two best old tires in the back.

So, the next morning again I went to the tire shop, told them I wanted two new tires in front and the two best old tires in back. Someone came and picked me up so I could leave the car there and get to the Spanish school. That afternoon a friend took me back to the shop to pick up my car. After I'd paid and picked up my keys, the tire guy called me over before I got to my car. He asked me if I wanted my two tires he'd taken off. He said one had the bulge and the other had a nail in it. It hadn't started leaking yet, but it was punctured. I let him keep the two tires! :) I don't think I have any use for them.

I was and am so thankful that the Lord had a knowledgeable man in my car when I ran over the bottle. Otherwise, he wouldn't have looked so closely at my tires, and I wouldn't have gone to get them rotated. The Lord had me change those tires before I got into trouble with them. I drive around alone so much, that I was so thankful to have exchanged a punctured tire and a bulged tire with 2 new tires, ready for thousands of miles. The Lord is protecting me, providing for me, ever so faithfully, and sometimes He uses other peoples' husbands.

And, now I know to rotate my tires. :)

Pics from PNG

Josh was able to go to another area of PNG for about a month and helped out missionaries there with construction projects: especially helping to finish a dorm. While there, he got to do some fun things with friends from school - climbing a mountain, hiking, scuba diving, visiting a tribal village in that region. He enjoyed it immensely. Here's some pics.

Josh in a Picus tree. Can you see him?

Josh scuba diving with some friends. There's one family there who has all the scuba equipment and takes those who want to and who are certified (Josh get certified a few months ago) out diving.

He also got to do some kneeboarding.

This waterfall is one of 4 in a row. It's just a little hike away from the tribal village where Josh & some friends visited. It is truly beautiful there.

Please pray for my eyes

For several months now, I have been having some eye allergies. It gets better & worse, etc. I think it's almost gone, then comes back again. Right now, my eyes are red again. Please pray for patience for me to deal with this & for wisdom in making decisions about contacts, doctors, etc.

My sister's visit

Well, Elisabeth & I had a great time together. We got to work together, eat together, travel to the mountains together, sigh-see a bit together, celebrate her birthday early together. We had a fun time.
Here's some pics from our trip to the mountains.
All throughout the mountains are rock fences. Many of them are really, really old: built centuries ago by the indians when the Spaniards conquered the area to distinguish property lines. Today, some of the fences are reconstructed alongside roads, etc for cattle. This isn't one of the old ones, but they are remarkable. Just piled up rocks that stay where they're supposed to!
Darn, I blinked!

We're heading to the hills - hoping for cooler weather. But alas, it was just as hot up there, and a higher altitute yet, so we ended up getting a little sun!
The little town we visited up in the mountains just a few hours from where I live. A popular tourist stopover.
We did one of the things Lis wanted to do most of all! We took a 3 hour horse ride to see some of the "sights" around the area. Yes, it was painful. I know "how" to ride, but I'm not very experienced & it had been about a year & a half since I had ridden!
There is a large people group that lives throughout the whole part of the mountain range where we went. Actually, that section of the mountains are named after them: Sierra Tarahumara. We have missionaries working in two different dialects of this group.
It is a beautiful, but hard land. These are some of the people's houses.

These people are so lost. This church was built when the Conquerors came to this area of Mexico & introduced a major religion in order to pacify and dominate the people group. This building is used every Sunday. The people get together to do their traditional animistic religious rituals, perhaps having a form of godliness, but denying the Truth.
These people have mixed this major religion with their own traditional animistic religion. One thing that caught my attention was that there were "flower & herb offerings" around the bell, exactly like there was in Santa Teresa with the Cora people. I didn't get to ask anybody about it, b/c we were just riding through. Maybe next time. The church was fairly large, but there were only those two benches in it. The main figure is Saint Ignacious with the crucified Christ on one side & the virgen guadalupe on the other side. This is definately not a place of worship for the resurrected & alive Christ & God of all the Universe.
The Tarahumara believe that "the Catholic cross is not the cross of Christ. It is the cross of a severed man in space, the invisible man with his arms wide open, whose nails look at the four cardinal points." In their ceremonies, they "ask for help to God by setting up a cross. Then after help is received, they give thanks to him by giving presents to him. The cross represents the dialogue between God and the Tarahumaras. Most of the time the gifts consist of: offering the guts of a sacrificed animal (cow/goat), chickens, corn tortillas, or tesguino (fermented corn drink)" Looking behind me on the trail. Two Finnish girls were also part of our trail ride.

Looking ahead of me on the trail. Lis stayed up with the guide the whole time! Go girl!
At the lake, finally. the turn-around place. I really enjoyed the ride & it was much more interesting to see the land slowly from the back of a horse instead of having to catch glimpses while I drove down the road. But, I did get really sore!
The lake is continuously used by the people to bath & wash. It is a major water source for the area.
After our trail ride, we took off to see the Copper Canyon, which is 4 times larger than the Grand Canyon.
It was impressive, but I must say, the Grand Canyon does have some magnificent colours that this place is lacking.

Then, we headed back to town. On our way back, we saw several sights that are no longer part of our American way of life in the US.
Plowing a field behind a horse.
Wood-burning stoves for heat & cooking. This is something you find in many houses throughout the mountains. Winter or summer, they cook on this.
Coming back from the mountains, we stopped off in a city just about an hour from where I live. It is the "Washington" of Mexico. It's the apple capital of this country. It is also a place known for the Mennonites who settled here back just after WWI. My mom's parents originated here before they migrated to Canada. There is a little bit of family left here. And, guess what?
Lis & I asked around & found a Great Uncle & Great Aunt. Their daughter and grandson came over while we were there, so we got to meet all of them. That was such a delight. They only speak Low-German & Spanish. And, we only speak English & Spanish, so we conversed in Spanish!

It was a full trip, but I was able to share with Elisabeth my life here & we had some sister-time. Thanks for coming, Lis.

Catching up

Well, Let's see if I can get caught up here. It's been a little while since I've been on here, so I want to update a bit.