Mas Y Mas

Today was a good day. We listened as our good professor gave an overview of Mexican history. Did you know that Cinco de Mayo is a United States invention, created to detract attention from a battle in Mexico city that happened on September 13th, 3 days away from the actual date that Mexico declared independence from Spain? I'm really enjoying these lessons. =) As another part of our classes today, Mr. De Hoyos read from a book of short stories or essays, and had us listen and see if we could pick out the content of what was being read. It took us a couple of times to get it, but it was a great opportunity to "tune in" our ears to the language. Our homework is to pick out 150 more words than the ones we already had, and memorize them before tomorrow morning. We did pretty well on our 150 word test today.


At lunch, Dickmar brought home a pack of "Phase 10" cards. It made me think of you, Leslie! <3 Zelina taught us all how to play, and we've been playing it throughout the rest of today. It's rather catchy!!


After listening to an excellent message by John Piper, I was pondering the concept of life being like a river. All of life, he says, is like being swept downstream in a current, and the headwaters are abiding in Christ. If you aren't moving towards it, you're moving away from the true life of abiding. Pastor Piper claims that God has put a lot of encouragers in his life because he is more needy for that. It made me think. Who is God wanting me to encourage around me? Who do I turn to when I'm feeling tired and about to be swept away? Not if I lose ground, but when. The reality of life is the constant struggle. Yet, He has already given the grace to be victorious!!


Lord, give me strength to keep swimming, and to help encourage other weary swimmers along the way. Thank you for being my lifeline. Amen

Spanish Intensive -- Day One, or Primer Dia

Today was our first day of Spanish Lessons! We learned so much, my head is swimming! We can now name the seasons, know the articles, letters of the alphabet and their sounds, seasons, and money, we can count to a thousand, and can tell you a bunch of opposite words besides. Whew! Not to mention the whole lesson was given IN SPANISH, so we really had to keep on our toes. This is my first step towards the eventual goal of being bilingual, so Hispanic world, here I come!

The weather continues to be gorgeous. We went orange picking. =) We were actually looking for limes and found none, settling for oranges instead.



We went for a run when the wind started to pick up again, making it cool enough. I tell you, nice problem to have!


These pics are of the construction of Kriss' house, which is making excellent progress.

Dominoes and Driving

The guys from Sandia are here working on Kriss’ house. They work hard during the day, but always have time for games at night. We got to play dominoes with them, and it was a blast! =D


Sunday was church, but before that we had the most amazing tamales!! Yum!!! The message was good, as was the singing time. The sermon was on building a person…you need two columns…the training and experience column, but also the character and spirituality column. Both must balance. Plus, there were a lot of good points along the way, from what I could make out. It was completely in Spanish. I guess we’ll be getting a lot of that this week…so I’d better get used to it!!

We were all excited to go to Cadareyta to a bull fight Sunday evening, but we found out when we were almost there that we had the wrong time! The bullfight started at 4 and we were aiming for 6! Whoops! Oh well, we had a nice dinner with Alejandra, and Alejandra’s brother Ysrael and his wife.


While we were hanging out in Cadareyta, we saw some amazing dancers in the plaza.


This one's for you, Vince!

Day Two -- So far ;)

Sleep felt soooo so good! I (Dena) had a great day running errands with Kriss. Pretty much I didn’t see Jamie all day, so I’ll let her give her account.

First, Kriss and I went to the salon, which was a super-nice air-conditioned building in downtown Linares. I sat on a cushy chair, and we chit-chatted. Next, we went shopping for gifts for a girl who was getting adopted out of the Orphanage where Kriss goes to help at. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get anyone on the phone at the Orphanage, and we managed to miss saying goodbye to the girl. I think her name was Juliet?

Lunch was real authentic Mexican at this place called La Maya. Lalo, who works at the orphanage, recommended it, and ended up eating lunch with us because he had some errands to run in town.

Kriss also needed to look for a new cell phone, so we stopped at the place and saw all the fun new models that are coming out.

After we got grocery list from Zelina, we proceeded to take Soriana by storm! :P Well, not really. Then, after searching in vain for the tamale shop, we finally asked directions from a guy who was directing traffic. He finally informed us that the shop had moved. So we got our tamales for the men’s group Sunday morning!

Spring Trip -- Dena & Jamie Day One

On the way down!

So, we made it to Mexico without TOO much trouble! ;) Just a brief scare with Turimex…well, we’ll get to that part. Let’s just say that God is good. It’s just so amazing to be able to trust God, and see what He does. =) Thanks everyone for praying for us, and family, I can’t wait until you get here! The orange trees give the air a perfumed smell, and the breeze is the perfect mix of cool and warm, making me forget I was ever living in our blustery, wintery Washington weather.

We left Portland without much ado…completely bypassing the check-in counter. That was a new experience! We new we’d have a tight connection to make the bus in San Antonio, so we went totally with carry-on. No troubles and an on-time boarding, bringing us into Denver 15 minutes early. Having woken up at 3:30am, I slept most of both flights. It was nice. =)

Our friend Aaron arrived just in time in his brother’s souped-up car (for you Star Wars fans, think Millennium Falcon) to shuttle us to the Turimex bus station in downtown San Antonio. The outside of the bus company building looked a little sketch, so Aaron stayed with us. When Jamie came out after attempting to buy tickets, she looked a little dismayed. “The lady said there’s only one seat on the bus to Laredo.” Oh dear! Well, could we share a seat? The luggage man overheard our deliberations and broke in, “No check with the lady, No! You go to the operator! He give you two seats, not one, TWO!” We smiled, relieved. Someone was taking up our case! He went inside and miraculously, when I checked with the lady again, she agreed to give us two tickets! Yay God!

We were so happy to get a spot on the bus!!

We said goodbye to Aaron and boarded the bus for Laredo. We didn’t make any stops, and were there within 3 hours.

In Laredo...in front of the Turimex building

Waiting for Dickmar

Dickmar was caught in traffic on the bridge, so we did a bit of shopping at HEB. Only a quick 4 hour drive and we’d be in Hualahuises! We were anxious to get there, and only stopped for permits and dinner. On the way down, we discovered that the De Hoyos family wouldn’t be making it back that night. They had gone to McAllen, TX on some errands, and weren’t able to leave in time. We ended up making it to the De Hoyo’s house at about 11:30. Kriss was there to greet us, and we very shortly made our way to bed, happy but very tired from the trip. Praise the Lord, He is SO good!


Filling out our visas...making it official

Congratulations!!

I just want to give a hearty congrats to Zelina DeHoyos, who is now ENGAGED to Ryan Tiemann of Minnesota!! Woot!! We love you both, and may God richly bless your life together!!!

Saturday, October 25th, 2008

Back in San Antonio once again! The goodbyes were tearful, the travel uneventful. Only once were we stopped by the federales, but when the camo-dressed man with an enormous gun put a question to Dad, he responded with, "No hable español, much, er, mucho..." Which, when translated means, "You don't speak much Spanish." The federale kind of grinned at Dad and rolled his eyes, waving him on. Way to play the gringo card, Dad!

Getting through the border was no problem at all. Jamie is still feeling a bit under the weather, but other than that we are all doing well. Thanks, everyone, for praying for us!

Our purposes in going on this trip are first of all to glorify God, to refresh the saints, to give aid where directed, and to plant and harvest fruit for the Kingdom. If all of these are accomplished, we feel the trip is successful. Whether we had fun is not a crucial factor, although we most certainly did. Whether we accomplished our plans is not important. Our success or failure on the trip is not measured by what we did or what happened, but by WHO was the Author and Finisher. We are missionaries wherever we go, not because we do mission-type activities, but because we carry in these earthly vessels the incomparable treasure of knowing Christ. This is the gift we share with the lost and hurting people of the world. If we fail, it is only because we lost connection to the Head, from which all things come.

I pray the Lord richly blesses you for your prayers. You are demonstrating the depth of your love for Christ by keeping his command to "pray for laborers." It is a job that will never be completed until the final triumphant day of the Lord's return. May we all endure until He returns!