Weekend Recap with lots of pictures :)

In an attempt to update better here,  I thought I'd give you a quick recap of our weekend.

Thursday night, the children wrapped up their school work and we had a big weekend ahead.

Daddy came home from soul winning with Chuy, one of the young men in our church.  Chuy has been learning guitar and is ready to start helping play for our services, so he came over to practice hymns for Sunday.

Due to the heavy rains and poor roof on our church building, our piano suffered damage during the summer storms and has yet to recover.  So Daniel, Timothy, Elijah, Benjamin and now Chuy play guitar for our singing.

Friday, we took the day off school to help Daddy with some outside work projects.  

The girls and I later spent a couple of hours in town hitting all the second hand stores looking for some clothes and shoes for this growing bunch!  The Lord blessed our time and we came home with many finds!

Friday evening, we relaxed after a hard days work in the sun and Daddy treated us to BBQ'd burgers, chicken and hot dogs! :)

Saturday morning, I got up well before dawn to make lunch for these two working young men.  They get picked up down the road about 6 am and work in the fields until around 2 or 3 pm.  

Saturday use to be my one sleeping in a bit  day, but once I've got their food made and get them sent off, I'm wide awake. :-p   But I love taking care of all my "men" and praying with them before they go.  

See their 5 gallon buckets?  They serve for many purposes on the job.

* Lunch Bucket (burritos and iced tea)

*Seat for the van ride

*Seat for when you eat your lunch

*Hold the tomatoes you pick

Nothing like a Saturday afternoon nap, although I don't think Samuel ever really fell asleep.  

Daniel left shortly after noon with the 3 middle boys to go visit another town about 1 1/2 from here where he may possibly begin preaching.  While they were gone and the older boys at work, the other kids and I tackled some cleaning projects.

A side note, but an important one for me to remember!

I started my day with sooooo many things to do.  Lots of laundry (due to a broken machine that week), a somewhat messy house due to the evening relax/bbq of the night before,  and the need to pack for the family for an overnight trip (Daniel preached Sunday Morning in a church 5 hours north of here) by 5 pm.

The back yard was extra messy due to the bbq/playing/dog running around the night before.  

That would normally be on the bottom of my to do list.  I can live with a messy yard far easier than I can with a messy house and piles of dirty clothes.

But I know that a clean yard is important to my husband.  And while I thought about all I had to do and how much I didn't want to do the yard, Matthew 6:33 came to my mind...
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.

I know the context is referring to our physical needs, but I thought of time.

I want to please the Lord more than anything and I love to please my husband.

I picked up a broom and mop and began to work on the patio.  I told the Lord that I was cleaning the yard first for Him and my husband.  And asked him to bless the remainder of my time that day helping me complete all that needed to be done.

It was such a good day!  The children worked together so well without complaining and did great work on their jobs (rather than me having to keep after them and redo what they did).

The Lord is so good!

Nehemiah's first job was to clean out his desk!  I didn't realize he had a bug collection in there until I started smelling something. Yuck!  I said, "Nehemiah!  You have a zoo in here!"  He laughed and said, "Mommy, I don't have a zoo.  I don't have an elephant and he wouldn't fit in there.  He'd be too squishy." :-)

My two jail birds got home from work in time to shower (like those tomato picking hands? ), eat and help me load up the van.  We drove to the Baptist Church of Santa Rosalia arriving around 10:45 pm that night.  We ate a delicious supper of beans, rice and meat/potatoes, and sent the kiddos to bed.  Pastor Enrique and his wife and Daniel and I visited until after 2 am.  Nothing like sweet fellowship with another missionary family!  Again, some things are more precious than sleep :)

 We woke up early, ate breakfast, and the children played in the church patio until church started.

Daniel preached for the morning service and the children loved making new friends in their classes.

 They sent us off after a bbq lunch (we were sure spoiled this weekend!) and we made it home at exactly 6 pm that evening...just in time for our evening service here! :) 

 It was a busy weekend and will be a full week ahead.

Going out to Ensenada Blanca again as a family tomorrow and returning Wednesday.  

Please continue to pray for the work the Lord has led us to do there.  We'll be going house to house/door to door preaching/ sharing the gospel with all we can.

Friday and Saturday several from our church along with our family are going to the Baptist church in Loreto for their 3 year anniversary.  Daniel will be preaching both days.

Saturday evening, we are having the youth over for the evening in our home here.

It is sometimes hard, often tiring, but there is more joy in serving the Lord together as a family than anything else in this world!

He is so faithful and so good!!

New home and work in the fishing village

Thank you so much for praying.

Not by might nor by power but by my spirit saith the Lord.

When we are weak, He is strong.

Praying and resting in Him.  Obeying.  It is so easy to lean unto our own understanding.  So easy to try to please man or get our own glory.  

But we've only one life that will soon be past and only what is done for Christ will last.

Whether it is preaching in a new village,

teaching a children's class,

washing the dishes,

wiping a child's tears and nose,

going soul winning,

making supper,

cleaning the church,

cleaning up after a sick child,

fixing a broken toy,

giving money,

giving time,

serving...

Only that which is truly done for Christ will last.

I want all I do to truly only be for Him.

I know it is easy for me to say that it is, but how often I find that pride or selfishness slip in.

How we need to be on our guard!  How we need our Lord each day!

Tuesday, early afternoon, we arrived out in Ensenada Blanca.

The house Daniel rented was waayyyy better than I imagined!  It has two rooms and a small bathroom.  It has no water or electricity, but our neighbors filled up a large tina to hold water in our front patio and then ran an extension cord from their house to ours so we could have a few light bulbs.

We spent the first couple hours unloading the van and setting things up.

Oh, if I had only been able to get to my camera to take a picture of the van!

If I hadn't been there I would have had a hard time believing it.

We managed to pack in

2 suitcases,

about 20 blankets/sleeping bags,

14 pillows,

a toiletry bag,

medicine/first aid kit,

soup pot, water pitcher, cutting board, frying pan, and many misc. kitchen utensils,

groceries,

camping stove,

propane tank,

laundry basket with 14 coats/sweaters,

rakes, shovels, hoes, brooms, dustpan,

2 guitars,

2 six foot tables,

2 six foot benches,

10 white plastic chairs,

10 hymnbooks,

a stack of tracts, New Testaments, Books of John and Romans,

Sunday School songs and materials/craft supplies,

tool box,

12 backpacks,

3 purses,

12 children,

2 adults,

and a partridge in a pear tree. :-)

Just seeing if you really read all that!

How did we all fit???  I honestly couldn't tell you.  

It was a very cozy trip!

Here is our little home/base.

The Lord clearly opened the door for Daniel to rent this home.

Here is one room where we held our children's class, ate and cooked our meals, and slept.

The other room is exactly the same and Daniel held the service there.

It has a big front yard area for visiting/playing. 

After set up was done, Daniel began visiting some of our neighbors and the children went over to the soccer court to make some friends.

That didn't take long :)

Here's a view from the entrance of the property.  Our house is there on the right, our van parked in front of it. 

And typical of a fishing village, a boat on the side of the yard.

At 6:30 pm, we held our first service.

With our family, we had 34 in attendance.

We all sang together and then the children went into the other room for their class.

The people who were standing outside were then able to come sit inside to listen as well.

The gospel of Jesus Christ was shared!

We ended around 8:30 pm and the everyone stayed to visit for another hour.

Our neighbor brought us over a fresh pot of beans which were the perfect complement to our scrambled eggs and fresh goat cheese.

Our neighbor brought us over a few foam mats so the floor wouldn't be so hard.

We went to bed thanking the Lord for the privilege of bring the gospel here for Him.

We slept so comfortable and contentedly until about 3:45 am when poor Eliseo gave us back that night's supper.  I wasn't prepared for that...had only brought a couple changes of clothes for the little ones, a few kitchen towels and a couple bath towels.  But I stayed laying by his side able to somewhat catch it each time with a cup.  By about 7 am, he was resting peacefully.

Long night, but added a bit more to our memories :-)

  

That morning, we gathered around to eat breakfast...warm rice milk, sweet bread and lemonade.

While Daniel and I, the girls and younger boys cleaned/loaded up (thankfully we left half the stuff there),

the oldest 5 boys climbed the mountain behind our house.

And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.  Matthew 4:19

Pray for Ensenada Blanca as we go there each week to fish for men.

Ensenada Blanca

For those of you who pray for our family and ministry here, we have a special request to share.

Tomorrow we are about to start preaching/holding services in a small fishing village named Ensenada Blanca.  Daniel has always had a burden for the small towns and villages in our area where the gospel isn't being or has never been preached.  Ensenada Blanca is about an hour and a half north of our home.  We usually take our children to the beach there during the summer a few times each year.  

Daniel and Elijah went out there last week and rented a small house.  It has no power or running water, but will serve as a base where we can hold services and where Daniel or our family can stay when working out there.

Tomorrow morning, our family will pack up some supplies and go out there to share the gospel house to house and invite all we can to an evening service.   We plan on staying the night there and returning Wednesday.  Either Daniel and some of our boys or some men from our church or our family will go out each week as we pray the Lord will convict the people there of their sin and need for a Savior. 

So many still do not know.  So many have never heard.

Here am I Lord, send me.
This is our prayer.
Will you pray for us?

Una Bienvenida

Tonight, I was privileged to host a bienvenida (welcoming party) for the newborn daughter of Hna. Guillermina.   Here in Mexico, a Baby Shower is a party given before the baby is born and a Bienvenda is a party given after the baby's birth.  So tonight, we celebrated the arrival of Abril Fernanda. :-)

Some people love to host/throw parties.  My mom was always soooo good at it!  She has so many ideas and loves to give.  Creativity is not one of my gifts, and I'd much rather be serving behind the scenes than in the center leading anything.  But as inadequate as I feel sometimes, I told the Lord a couple years ago that if He could use me in someway, I am willing.   I want to always be willing to give and serve.  So thankful for His strength!

So last week, I began to pray and plan.  My daughters were wonderful helps!  Timothy was great too as he is now driving and still in the stage where he LOVES to do errands for me. :-)    Daniel was wonderful (of course, he always is! :) ) in taking me to get decorations or whatever else I needed.  And while I don't have a lot of "extra" time, just doing a little bit each day,  most everything was ready by this morning.

Hna. Tola came over this morning to help me make Pozole while the children helped me clean and decorate.

After the little ones napped, Daniel took all 9 boys over to work with him at the church property and I went to pick up those ladies who needed a ride.

We had a full house and my prayer was we would all be a blessing to Guillermina, grow closer together as sisters in Christ, and above all, glorify our Lord.

We play several games and then I shared for about 15 minutes from God's Word.  There were a couple ladies there who I know have never come to know Christ as their Savior and what a joy to share the wonderful gospel message with them.

We then enjoyed a pozole dinner and of course, ( my favorite part) CAKE and COFFEE and watched Guille open her gifts.  It was such a fun evening!  

Of course, I won't mention the fact that our dog, who was shut up in Daniel's shop, somehow managed to open the door, escaped and began to fight another dog right under the table where the ladies were eating.  Nor how upon hearing the barking I looked out the window to see two of the ladies climbing on top of the table in a complete panic while the other ladies were grabbing little ones and running into the house.  Or how as I ran outside with a broom to do something (I didn't know what I was going to do but had to do something!), and finally getting our dog back into the shop (locking it with a key this time), I felt horrible!  But I will mention that thankfully nobody got hurt and suddenly, we were all laughing so hard about it,  we were crying and our sides hurt.  

So here, I share with you a few pictures of our evening.  And we'll be back soon to share something the Lord has placed on my husband's heart for some time that by God's grace, we'll be beginning on Tuesday.  

The Lord is so faithful and so good!

These first couple pics have nothing to do with the shower, but...
my baby is soooooo big!!

Nehemiah and Noah :-)  See the end of that chain in the background on the left side of the picture?
That's Nehemiah's birthday chain.  We made it last month.  When he still had 72 days until his birthday.
How did I get talked into that one?  Those smiles and pleading eyes do it every time!

Welcome beautiful Abril!

Game-  After seeing the tray for a minute, try to remember everything is on it.  

Another Game-  Guess how many marshmallows are in the bottle. The ladies did GREAT at this!  They were all sooooo close!  Do you have a guess?  I'll give the answer in a minute :) 

My turn to hold her!! :)

Oh, by the way, the answer is 89 :)
Anybody guess right?