Pulling out right on schedule :) Praying for the Lord's gracious protection as we travel.

This morning, as we had our time around God's Word as a family, Daniel encouraged us with the verse Matt. 6:33, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." It always amazes us the many unexpected and special blessings the Lord gives us.
While we've been trying to keep meals as cheap as possible and use all we can from our pantry/fridge the past week as we are about to leave, we were blest with a delicious lunch...and all Timothy had to pick up at the store for me was some margerine and pasta. :)
Daniel came home with a couple pounds of shrimp last week. Living less than an hour from 2 oceans/seas supplies us with much fish/seafood at just pesos :) And then yesterday, Daniel was visiting a family in our church when they gave him a huge bag of asparagus. Daniel peeled and deveined the shrimp, Abigail helped me sautee them and steam the asparagus, and then we cooked some pasta to go with it. So for just a few cents a plate, we had sauteed shrimp with buttered pasta and steamed asparagus. What a treat!
The children and I have kept busy all day cleaning the house, getting the laundry washed, and packing our bags. Daniel has been working on the van/trailer the entire day. He fixed a flat tire, fixed the van door which wouldn't open, changed the oil, worked on some other small issues, and is hoping to get it vacuumed, washed, with car seats installed before we have to get ready for prayer meeting.
Little Nehemiah had a horrible stomach ache yesterday and began throwing up last night. He finally settled down around 3 am and awoke with a good fever this morning. I got him to take some fever reducer and drink a bit of Gatorade and then he fell asleep for another hour or so. When he woke up, he was in good spirits and asking for some cereal which he happily ate along with the rest of his Gatorade. So far, he's seemed to feel much better and we are praying the Lord will heal him completely before tomorrow and keep the other children from getting sick.
We so appreciate your prayers as we travel tomorrow and we will update during the trip as we can.




Lunch is ready!

Abigail helping make the shrimp

Playing hard!

Studying hard!

Working hard! :) And Nehemiah sleeping hard!

Answering a couple of questions

We've gotten a couple of questions so I thought I'd take a break from packing and take few minutes to answer. :)
Question 1-
oh wow. i have never made bagels before! they look so yummy too. were they hard to make? I was wondering how you pay for your bills, house, and food, clothing for the kids..I know you said your husband spends his days praying with the neighbors, but do they pay him for that?

Several people asked about the bagels and they were really quite simple to make. My only complaint was that they didn't last more than about 5 minutes. Next time I will have to make a double batch. :)
I got a bagel recipe a while back off of tammyrecipes.com. All it required was flour, sugar, salt, water and yeast. I let my bread machine do the work of mixing while I finished teaching the children and after it had risen, I put a pot of water to boil on the stove and the children helped me divide the dough into balls and then shape each ball into a bagel. We boiled them for about a minute each, and then put them on a cookie sheet, brushed them with egg white, and baked them for about half an hour. I haven't had a bagel in years as they don't make/sell them here, so we were very happy! :)
Often times people wonder how a missionary pays for his expenses while on the field. A missionary is supported much the same way a pastor is supported~ through the giving of Christians. In the case of a missionary, he is sent out by his home church and then supported by that church and other churches so that he can dedicate his time to preaching the gospel.
So we are sent out by our home church in the USA. They, along with other churches and brothers/sisters in Christ support us both through prayer and finances enabling us to live and share the gospel here in Mexico.
While Daniel is able to physically be here walking the streets, working, preaching, knows the Spanish language, understands the culture ect... other believers have just as important of a part in reaching these precious souls with the gospel through their prayers and giving.
Daniel does much more than pray with the neighbors. He would say his job description is simply to preach the gospel, although he does so much more. He preaches, walks from house to house soul winning, disciples new believers, visits the widows and sick, trains and teaches those young men who desire to serve the Lord as pastors/missionaries themselves, plus the never ending physical work that is always in abundance here.
The Lord has so faithfully provided all our needs. And how it has increased our faith more and more as we see Him care for us.

I was curious about your road trip home. Do you take turns driving to break up the trip? Where do you sleep during the 3 day journey? Tents or hotels? Do you pack food for the trip? How do all the kids do in the car for so long? DVD players?

Daniel does all the driving when we travel. Occasionally, if we have a very long day of driving and have no time to stop for a short rest, I will drive for an hour or so so he can get a nap, but that doesn't happen too often. The road along the peninsula scares me to drive especially since we pull the trailer. It's so narrow, no shoulder, only one lane, and the semi's drive by so close! :) Before we came to the mission field, Daniel worked for 5 years for a company where he drove a truck all day, so he's so very skilled and we ask the Lord throughout the day to protect us as we travel. If I do help drive, it is only in the USA :) We do look forward to the day when we will have children old enough to help with the driving too :)
We stay the 2 nights we're on the road in a hotel. We stay in one hotel here in Mexico and then one hotel in the states. We are blessed to have found a hotel in both places that allows us to only rent 1 room! The rooms are spacious; daddy and mommy get 1 bed, the girls all share the other, and the boys camp out with their blankets/pillows on the floor.
Yes, we do pack some food for the trip or stop at little markets on the way to buy things to make sandwhiches or burritos. For breakfast, Daniel will get us all bananas, bread, and yogurt. I sometimes bring our electric skillet and we can make egg burritos too which is nice. Once we cross the US border though, believe it or not, the children can't wait until they see a taco bell....they just love their bean burritos and so that is always a special treat we do on the way up.
The children do well traveling...they've had lots of practice :) No, we do not have a DvD player, but they bring things to keep busy. They each have their own back pack they "pack up" for the trip...books, games, notebooks, little toys, snacks ect... help the time pass. We like to sing and visit together of course. We also bring preaching tapes, music tapes, Scripture tapes, and we have some story tapes too (Pilgrim's Progress, The Hiding Place).
We do all have times of getting bored of course...it's a llooonnnggg drive! But the "goal" of reaching "grandma's town" is good to help everyone endure. Usually right around 8 pm, we hit what we call "melt down" time...that's when usually 4-6 of them start crying and fussing all at once. But the good thing is that is a sign of them being too tired and within about 10-15 minutes, they all fall asleep :)

It is hard to believe we will be "home" in just a few days and then back home here in a few more days. Everyone is very excited but Daddy challenged us all to concentrate and work hard during the first part of this week and then we can all enjoy our time up north.

Last night, I fell asleep around 10:30 pm while Daniel was out helping some people until around 11:30 pm. I was so tired, yet thought I should really stay up a bit longer as I needed to catch up on some laundry and clean a bit as it's just so nice to start the day with everything done. But my tired eyes wouldn't stay open, so I set the alarm a bit early and fell asleep. I didn't even hear Daniel come home nor did I hear what he did when he got here...I woke up this morning and was surprised to find 5 loads of laundry washed, the floors swept and mopped and both bathrooms cleaned! I went out to the kitchen sink to wash a bottle for Eliseo when Daniel sneaked up behind me, hugged me and asked if I liked the house. He said he just wanted my "Monday" (which he knows can be a busy day) to get off to a good start. I didn't even know what to say and felt so loved and grateful for his thoughtfulness.

The children helped me put all the clothes away this morning and then we worked on school until lunch. The boys have been spending the afternoon weeding the front yard to earn some pesos to buy a special snack/treat for their backpacks to take on the trip.

Daniel left about 2 hours ago to preach out in Jesus Maria. It doesn't feel like 5:45 pm right now...it's almost dark! I'll have to call the boys in soon. Yesterday, daylight savings time ended here in Mexico. While I was looking forward to an extra hour of sleep, the children didn't see the need for it and where up like clockwork Sunday morning an extra hour early. It was nice having everything done so early before the services though...made me rethink our Sunday routine in general as we are more often than not rushing around and running late!

Oh, we have been trying to eat everything in our cupboards/fridge the past week and buy as little as possible. We always do this before a trip and we've had some interesting and fun meals lately :) The fridge is almost empty...we have some mayo, musard, garlic, chili peppers, manteca, and 2 boxes of cream cheese which I picked up a few weeks ago when we went to the city.

Everytime I saw the cream cheese, I would think of bagels....I really like bagel and they've sounded sooo good lately. But you can't get bagels here. So this afternoon, the thought occured to me that I could probably make some. We had flour, salt, yeast, sugar and water of course, so the children all gather around to help. We had so much fun and they were soooo yummy! And now I only have 1 box of cream cheese left ;) Everyone voted to make some more bagels before we leave!

Well, I'm off to make some enchiladas for supper and pray for Daniel and the village there while I cook. :)

Here is a scorpian Daniel found in the church yesterday morning!

Our dear sweet brothers and sisters in Christ here in Cd. Insugentes! Our sweet widow lady, Juanita, is on the left hand side at the end standing next to Abigail, Rebekah and I. I was sitting down holding Eliseo when she came into the church last night and she gave me a hug and said, "Oh, you are just my size now! :)"


Boiling the bagels...this was everyone's favorite part...other than the eating! :)

Brushing them with egg white so "they will look all pretty" says Abigail

They didn't last very long :)

Wonderful week!

Timothy walked outside yesterday and took a picture of our cricket farm :) Yes, there are about as many inside the house too...just not all in one spot. They come every year with the rains. In fact, about 5 or so years ago, we made a survey trip down in this area as we were praying about where the Lord would have us to work. Of all the places we visited, this was the one town I said I would NEVER want to go to....there were soooo many crickets and I was literally scared to death of them. I wouldn't even get out of the van. I remember Daniel talking to someone at a payphone and the crickets were jumping on his neck and going down his shirt!
Well, the Lord sent us right here! :) And He even gave me grace to handle the crickets. They honestly don't really bother me anymore. A couple nights ago, one jumped on my face while I was eating supper and I just threw it off. The Lord is so good to even care about my fear of bugs ;)

We had such a blessed week last week. It started out with the good report from the doctor, and we thank the Lord that as I've been up and around this week, there have been no noticable problems with our new little bean (as the children affectionately call him/her) :).

We spent the week getting "caught up" on chores/school ect... and Daniel too was able to go back to his regular routine. We were very blessed to have Brother Juan and his family with us through Friday. We enjoyed some meals together, hearing him and his wife sing songs together (the Lord has given them both beautiful voices), and our children enjoyed playing with their little girl too.

Brother Juan's wife, Martha, spoke to the ladies/young ladies of our church Thursday night about things that pertain unto being women belonging to Christ. She encouraged them in the Lord through His Word in how we talk, dress, live, and serve.

Another thing that made our week so wonderful was Daniel annoucing to the family that his uncle, Pastor Tom Lucatorta, who has a church in our home town area in California, wanted our family to come to their mission's conference the first week in November. After much prayer, Daniel felt the Lord leading him to accept the invitation, so we will be making a trip north next week. It will be a whirlwind trip....it is a 32 hour drive "home" not including the border crossing or stops (potty breaks, fueling up, eating ect...), so it takes us a good full 3 days to get there. So the plan is to leave Thursday (the 30th), we'll arrive Saturday evening, attend the conference Sunday through Wednesday, and then be back home here Saturday evening. Brother Juan will be coming back up to preach for Daniel the Sunday we will be gone.

The children have only been to a couple of missions conferences during our deputation time, but that was about 5 years ago, so most of them don't remember. We were explaining to them what a missions conference is and we are all so excited to be a part of one again.

But then, to be honest, there is another part of going to the USA that is at the fore front of all these little Lockwood's minds...Daddy and Mommy included. Here are some of the comments I've heard this week:

*Oh mommy, do you think you can buy a couple boxes of malt-o-meal to take back home with us? (Timothy)

*I can't wait until we cross the border and see a Taco Bell....I LOVE their bean burritos! (Elijah)

*Oh Mommy, we can buy some stuff to make pumpkin pie and the other yummy things we do on Thanksgiving like at Grandma's house. (Rebekah)

*I LLLOOOOVVVVVEEE the states! They have these pizzas that you take home and put in the oven and they are super yummy! (Abigail)

* McDonalds french fries are there everyone! Yeeeeaaaa! (I think I heard that comment from about 6 of them).

Okay, so apparently we all miss American food. I've been telling Daniel the past few weeks, "Why is it that everything that sounds good to my queasy tummy or any craving I have ALWAYS something that is only in the USA?" :)

Enjoying a meal of beans, salad, chicken, and pasta with Brother Juan and his family.

Sorry that this picture is sideways :) But here is Brother Juan, his wife Martha, and their little girl Genesis. They are just so sweet and we enjoyed our time with them so much.

I took this last picture just to show you what my children do anytime I eat anything! When I'm morning sick, rather than eat big meals, it helps if I eat little snacks throughout the day. So I had grabbed a couple of crackers out of the cupboard and all that heard/saw me, ran up for a bite. I said, "Stand right there while I get my camera." I had them do it again so I could show them how silly they all look :)

Quick update

I just got back from the doctor and was given a very good report. I have been feeling fine the last few days, have had no more signs of any problems, and when the doctor did the ultrasound, the area of the placenta that was detatched last week appears to have mended! And our little baby was active and growing well measuring right at 12 weeks. Praise the Lord!
So I got released from my bed!!! I am still on limited activity (no lifting, rest periods required throughout the day, no hard work yet), but everyone is so glad Mommy can be up and about, do the cooking and as long as there are no other signs of problems, eventually resume a regular routine in time.
Thank you so much for your prayers. We are so thankful the Lord has chosen to bless us with such a wonderful report this morning! Well, the computer is in our bedroom and that is the LAST place I want to be right now :), so I'm off to help fix lunch.
Pray for Daniel again today as he goes back into the village this afternoon. The same men are faithfully coming and listening, though have not yet come to Christ. Some of the other people in the village have begun to show a bit of opposition to Daniel's visits, so pray the Lord will work in the hearts of those there and that somebody will soon come to Him.

Benjamin means "Son of my right hand"

What a busy yet blessed weekend! It started out a bit rough, and I was so worried about how everything would turn out. How silly for me to worry so, for the Lord always works all things for our good; it's so easy to worry and not fully trust Him yet He NEVER fails.

Early Friday morning (about 2 am) Eliseo began throwing up. Around 4 am Abigail came in after she got sick needing a shower and change of sheets and pjs. Daniel woke the boys up at 7:30 am and soon found that Timothy and Elijah weren't feeling too good either. When Nehemiah wouldn't get out of bed, Daniel said, well, that makes 5 down. Daniel had to leave to pick up Brother Juan and his family and would be gone for the day. He was planning on taking most of the children with him, but now some couldn't travel and we weren't sure how many others may get sick on the way. It was finally decided that the 3 youngest well ones would go along for the ride. The five sickies would have to stay home and the 3 oldest well ones would help.

Oh, there was so much to do...laundry, getting the house clean, and fixing supper for everyone when they returned. But I promised Daniel I would stay in bed per doctor's/hubby's orders and assign jobs.

The Lord was gracious and Timothy and Elijah began to feel much better by the afternoon. The house got cleaned, about half the laundry done, and Rebekah made spaghetti, bread, and a salad for supper.

Brother Juan and his wife are just so humble and sweet and we've sooo enjoyed their fellowship. Saturday we had a bbq at our house for our church workers and we invited our 14 year old neighbor girl to stay too. She had come over that afternoon to visit me. Her family moved in about 3 months ago. Our Abigail gave her a Spanish John/Romans and a tract and we have shared the gospel with her many times. Daniel asked Brother Juan's wife, Martha, if she would talk to Andreina (the girl) too, and last night, she accepted the Lord Jesus as her Saviour!

While I missed helping with the cooking, clean up, and playing the games, Daniel brought a chair outside for a bit so I could visit with everyone which was so much fun.

The family has been gone most of today as we always are with the bus routes, morning and evening services ect... And right now, our church is just beginning their fellowship meal with Brother Juan's family. They are giving him a love offering tonight and a couple of weeks ago, they voted to take some of their regular offerings to make them a gift basket and buy their 3 year old daughter a toy. I wish I could be there to see them present everything to them.

Now getting around to the title of this post.... :) After all the hussle and bussle of the weekend and mommy being down until further notice, the place looked like a tornado went through. Even Martha, when she came over for lunch after morning service, said that she would clean up next time she was over. :)

The family left for church tonight and Daniel left Eliseo, Susannah and Noah here with me and it was big boy Benjamin's turn to stay to be the helper. The little ones were still napping and I was feeling pretty tired, so I asked Benjamin if he would please wash the lunch dishes while Mommy took a nap.

Next thing I know, it was about an hour later. I woke up as Benjamin walked in the room and said, "I cleaned up the whole house for you Mommy. Do you want to come see?" I walked down the hall and was soooo surprised! He really had cleaned EVERTHING! And really, really well! He even had mopped the floors and had gotten Noah and Susannah up and given them a snack outside. I was so very proud of him.

Tomorrow morning we go back to the doctor. Pray that the placenta tear is healing or better yet, has healed. We'll update after the appointment and let you all know.

Abigail and our new sister in Christ, Andreina

Little sick Nehemiah camped out on Mommy's bed.

Little sick Eliseo...I'm so glad they are all feeling better!

Susannah got hit in the head with a stick (unintentionally) by a sibling, so she was icing it with a bag of frozen berries. :)

Christmas Box Reminder! :)

The first Christmas Shoe Boxes came in the mail this week! Just a reminder that there is just over 4 weeks left to send them. If you haven't heard about this opportunity to give a gift to a child here in our town, there is a link on our top side bar with all the specifics.

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This is going to be an extra busy weekend, although a bit different than we expected with me having to stay in bed. Tomorrow, Daniel will be going down to La Paz (about 3 hours south) to pick up Brother Juan and his family. Brother Juan is Mexican missionary and dear friend of our family. He, his wife, and their little girl were in a serious bus accident 2 years ago which almost took his wife's life. Nineteen people died on the scene of the accident (8 on impact and 11 other while waiting for the ambulence which took almost 4 hours to arrive). They are such a sweet family who love the Lord and have a burden for their own people. Daniel invited Brother Juan up to spend time with our family and the brothers/sisters in Christ here and to preach in our church on Sunday.
Saturday we are having a worker's BBQ at our house which is a time for all those who work in our church to enjoy a time of fellowship together. I'm hoping to be feeling well enough to sit outside a bit and visit :) And then on Sunday we'll be having a church fellowship supper after evening service. Timothy assured me he'd save me a plate of my favorite foods :)
Thank you again for praying.

Bedrest with children

Well, this has been a new experience for our family, but one for which we are thankful knowing that God has allowed it and has much to teach us through it. It hasn't been easy and we've had to continually choose to "bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" ( 2 Cor. 10:5). At times, we get frustrated or worried or upset, but the Lord is so good to renew our minds through His Word as we ask Him to help.

I am so thankful for Daniel as his plate is already so full yet he joyfully serves and helps in all he can here now. The children have been such good helps and so far haven't complained about the extra work at all. The biggest challenge is the little ones (mainly the 4, 3, and almost 2 year olds) :) They do well with much supervision and mommy working along with them...but they tend towards being little disaster makers when left on their own. It's been good for us to see areas that we need to work on in training our children! :)

The mornings run about the same. Daniel changes Eliseo and I feed him here in bed. Yesterday Elijah and Benjamin made the family french toast and eggs. Every morning after we pray over our breakfast, the children always all say, "Thank you mommy!" "This is so good" "I am sure hungry!" But yesterday, I heard Daddy lead in prayer and then a chorus of "Thank you boys!" "Good Job Elijah" "Yummy eggs Benjamin" :) It was so cute.

Daniel brought a table over from the church and set it up in my room so I can teach the children from bed and watch them as they study and do their work. This takes up a good part of the morning and early afternoon which I love.

In the later afternoon, Daniel has either taken the children with him to go visiting/preaching or has spent a time working with them on the laundry and housework. I enjoy helping fold some things on my lap for the children to put away. While they are busy away or at work, I made a list of things I can do to keep busy:

*Organize photos

*Read

*Sew

*Practice my mandolin

*Listen to preaching tapes

*Work on the children's baby books

*Answer emails

So the time is passing much more quickly than I thought it would. I've been bored a few times which is funny since I don't think I've felt bored for at least 5 years :)

Of course, there is always cuddling with Eliseo which I love, reading to the children, and tonight I told the boys I expect all their work done, showers done, and them in here by 9pm for a Boggle game :)

Thank you so much for all the sweet comments/emails and especially for the prayers. Yesterday I felt really good, but today I've been having more pain, so I'm just laying down taking it extra easy. The doctor prescribed me some medicine to relax the uterus which seems to help with the discomfort.

Please keep praying! We read Proverbs 15 for our family Bible time this morning and it said at least 2 times how God loves to hear the prayer of the righteous. He is so good!

This little guy keeps me company all day :) He's so content and happy to just lay by mommy and smile

My night stand- The girls brought me their lotion to use :)

My bedside table...Daniel brought me a mexican baked potato for supper....my favorite! The funny thing was that Nehemiah got ahold of what I didn't finish in the middle of the night and had himself a midnight snack....in our bed! I didn't know it until the morning when I woke up next to my potato with pieces all over the bed and a little sleeping boy with the evidence all over his face :)
Somebody loves his daddy :)

Josiah and Eliseo joined me for my morning quiet time...there on my Bible is the u/s of our little baby. We all prayed for him/her right after we took this picture.
Josiah helping to get Nehemiah's wild hair combed.
Isaiah and Abigail going over their lessons on our bed.
Teaching from bed

Prayer for our little baby

Yesterday afternoon, I was about to begin getting the children ready for our evening church service when I had a severe sharp pain in lower left side of my tummy. I could hardly walk and lay down on the bed and began to pray. Daniel was already over at the church; after about 5 minutes, I told Timothy to get his socks and shoes on and to ride his bike down to the church to get Daddy. While Timothy was getting ready to go, the pain began to subside, so I told the 6 older boys to get ready to go and the girls could stay here with me and the little ones. Susannah was already not feeling well so I thought it best to stay home and rest.
I was feeling much better by the evening, but while I was getting ready to go to bed, I began to bleed pretty heavily. We had lost a baby to miscarriage between Timothy and Elijah, and we were sure this was what was happening now. I went to bed with a sad heart, yet the Holy Spirit comforted me with knowing that our little one would be with Jesus and someday, we would all be together forever. Oh, what blessed hope we have in Jesus! I fell asleep thinking of my youngest sister who is due with twins just a few days before me and I prayed for her babies.
The next morning, we went to see my doctor and explained to him what was going on. He was very concerned and did an ultrasound right away. After a few seconds he said,
"Your baby looks....perfect". He/she was moving all around, waving at mommy :), had a good strong heartbeat, measuring right at 11 weeks along. I was so surprised and happy to see that!
He told me that a portion of the placenta has torn away from the uterine wall which was the cause for the pain and bleeding. This puts the pregnancy at "high risk" and I've been ordered to complete bed rest. He wants to see me again next Monday for another scan.
Isn't it wonderful that the same God who made the entire world has so lovingly formed each and every part of our little baby? And His ever watchful eyes are upon him/her! It is so good to be able to rest in Him.
We would appreciate your prayers so very much. Today, I'll be making a revised schedule to cover mommy's chores and make sure daddy still gets fed good. The children always enjoy cooking, so they will get lots of opportunities :) Pray for Daniel as he will be extra busy. I remember when he was so sick back in May how tiring it can be keeping up with the normal "mommy" and some "daddy" jobs too. The Lord is so good to give us the grace and strength as we need it! How faithful is He!
Blessed be His name!

Calm after the storm :)

Tonight, we gathered around to thank the Lord for bringing us safely through the storm. While there was some flooding, it wasn't even as bad as the tropical storm we had in August. Our church here and our family thank you for your prayers.

Here we are getting ready to eat lunch...we had no power, and although it wasn't dark yet, the children couldn't wait to light the lanterns :)

After lunch, we headed out to visit one of the shelters where many of the people from our church were waiting out the storm.
There were lots of children there and our children had fun playing and coloring with them.
Daniel brought his guitar and we spent about 2 hours visiting and singing songs/hymns with everybody.
By 4:30 pm, the rain had stopped leaving us with only a strong wind which was a blessing as it served to rapidly dry things out. The children played on our back patio and since we still didn't have power, we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and since we had no running water yet, Daniel washed off the worst part of the dirt/mud from the children's hands and feet with our bucket of mop water :) Right before bedtime, the lights came back on. Thank you Lord for your loving care.

What do you do during a hurricane?

Nehemiah does wear pants...sometimes :) The good thing is, he found himself a coat :)

The older boys played Timothy's travel chess game he got from Grandma and Grandpa.
Rebekah and Josiah were "teaching Sunday School :)"

There was a group playing a game
And Noah told me he was teaching Susannah and Nehemiah how to read...that's pretty good since he can't read himself yet :)
Little guy waits out the storm with a nice long nap
But mainly we just watch the storm...from the patio
Or if it gets too windy, we watch from the couch...on top of Daddy :)
The eye of the storm has just made land, but it hit a bit lower than was predicted which keeps us about 70 miles from the eye. So far, it hasn't been to bad! The Lord is answering prayer. Daniel just stopped by to visit the people from our church at the shelter, and they are all doing well. Just bored...so he brought them some soda and chips :)

Hurricane update- Saturday Morning

Hurricane Norbert was upgraded to a category 3 about 5 am this morning. It is spinning right off our coast. The rains started about 30 minutes ago, so Daniel got dressed and left to gather all the people from our church to take them to safe shelters. We'll update throughout the day as we can provided we have power. Thank you for praying!

What do missionaries really eat?

Good Job Nehemiah...you rake that dirt level!

Don't worry Mommy, Daddy and I got things under control.
Timothy's birthday breakfast..omelets and toast
Timothy's birthday dinner...he's got a funny face there :) Nehemiah's in the background saying "Where's mine?"
Timothy opening his gifts
Daddy handing him his BB gun! :)
Watch out rabbits, rattlesnakes, and reptiles!

Daniel just got back from visiting all of the members in our church. Government vehicles have been going around town announcing where the shelters are and basically letting the people know that they can't save them if they get into trouble so it is best to come to the shelter early.

Daniel told all the families in our church who don't have transportation to give us a call anytime, day or night, if they would like to be taken to the shelters. We wish we could offer the church building to stay in as well, but it is one of the first places to flood in bad storms.

Daniel said that as long as he can get out and get to a shelter during the storm, he would love to go there and witness. The government provides them with a cot, 3 meals a day, and some toiletries, and the rest of the day, they just sit around and visit. So maybe Daniel will have an opportunity to share the gospel there this weekend.

The storm is still on course to hit here tomorrow. They've now issued a hurricane warning for the other side of the peninsula as well as the storm hasn't weakened yet as they expected. We are so glad that we have a "shelter in the time of storm" who holds us in His hands!

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In other news....today, we celebrated Timothy's 12th birthday!! Yesterday, our first little baby turned 12 years old. We had his birthday breakfast and were planning on having his party that night, but we were so busy preparing for the storm that it got late and then it took Daniel quite a while to find the special gift that he wanted to get Timothy, so we postponed the party for today.

We celebrated with....are you ready for this....bbq filet mignon, potatoes, and corn on the cob :) Timothy really wanted a steak for his birthday because it is something that he never gets to eat (as he says :) ). So Daniel said he'd pick up a steak (or two...Daddy wouldn't want Timothy to have to suffer alone) and I thawed some chicken and had some hot dogs we could use.

Well, Daniel came home from the store with 2 kilos (over 4 lbs) of filet mignon. He said it was only $5 a kilo, and he asked them to slice it really thin, so for $10, we got about 40 slices of filet! So everyone got to try it and I have enough left over to make another meal or two! It was really so tender that you could cut it with your fork. I was laughing with Daniel how here were "missionaries" eating filet mignon. He said, "Don't worry, we can go back to beans and rice tomorrow" :)

So Timothy got a "real man" meal! :) We were all covered in dirt from working outside all day, but there wasn't enough water in our water tank for showers yet, so we just ate outside. After dinner, Timothy opened his gifts...lots of special treats from his little brothers and sisters, homemade cards, Elijah bought him a hammer for his tool box, some games sent from his Grandparents, and then Daddy gave him his very own BB gun :) And I got to hear all night about how I won't need to shop so much now because Timothy will be bringing home rabbits each week and we can make soup and stuff. :) So maybe we won't have to go back to beans and rice afterall :)

We all went around blessing Timothy each one telling him what they really love and appreciate about their oldest brother/son :) Timothy is a very hard worker, loves to play with his siblings, is very sharing, loves to reach out to anyone that needs a friend, and is just a super oldest brother to have! He lets Noah, his little buddy, sleep in his bed with him almost every night. The other day, I heard one of the other children say, "Timothy, you shouldn't let Noah sleep there so much. Sometimes he wets the bed and then your bed will get stinky." And Timothy said, "Oh, it's okay. He likes to be with me a lot and if he wets, Mommy will wash it and if it does get stinky, we can just all move to his bed" :) I thought that was cute.

Getting Closer

Here is the projected path of the hurricane. That 11 am Saturday dot is about 20 miles from our house. It's a category 2 hurricane presently. Please keep praying! The town is getting prepared. Daniel and the boys just finshed bringing in the dirt to our yard and are about to go out to visit the church members homes to help fix a roof and make sure everyone is stocked up with enough food and water. We'll update again later tonight.