The start of the season...

It has been lovely to enter the cooler season.  The days are warm, and the evenings are cool.  After months of not wearing pants, I do start to long for them.  Today is the first day that I actually am able to comfortably wear them through the whole day.  (It's because it's cloudy.)  Also with the cooler season brings teams of people. :)  We have just sent off our first team of the season this morning.  Now the challenge will be to figure out a new schedule for our family life that will keep us healthy as a family and couple.  I am looking forward to our future move into a home December 1st.  It will make the scheduling much easier to stick to.  I really think I have to literally draw up a week poster of who is doing what. lol  

   Brian has been super busy with his Spanish classes.  5 days of the week he spends 1 1/2 hours with Maestra Dolores.  Cole also has a class with her, and we are looking at adding another one for him.  I just love that Dolores is both a English and Spanish teacher.  She has become more than a teacher.  She truly cares for both Brian and Cole.  This last week has been a busy one involving Cole's school and our concerns with it.  We have found that his teacher didn't know what to do with Cole and what she did with him was give him 5 Spanish words a day.  (I honestly don't know if this is true, as I didn't see or hear of this until she told us.) So we had come to the conclusion that Cole was wasting 4 hours a day with her and that he would learn more being at home than continuing with her.  Also we had brought up a concern we had with how another student was being treated.  We had asked if she knew that this boy was being beat on daily.  Her response "he is a bad boy, deserves everything he gets".  Our hearts broke.  Cole had been standing up for his boy, defending him.  Even when he would get in trouble with his teacher for doing this.  There is more to the story, but so hard to get into words. None the less, she was good, and everyone else had something wrong with them.  Not the learning environment Cole needs to be in.  Our end result has been to take Cole out of his class and focus more on his homeschooling.  I am excited to take this on.  I love that I have a great teacher to help with both his English and Spanish.  Mason will be staying in his class, for his school is on a different location and his teacher is wonderful.  Oh I want to share what Cole had been telling me.  This boy that has been having trouble, is a friend of Cole's and happens to be our neighbor.  He was telling me how he had been sharing with Louis the love of Christ and had been asking Louis if he has Jesus in his heart.  He is our little missionary. 

   The Fatima food program has been doing well.  We have faithful volunteers and a regular crowd of 100 kids.  Donna (American volunteer) and I had been talking the other day about how crazy 75 kids was at first, and now when the numbers are that low it is so quiet.  We have found that 100-125 is the number that works well for Fatima, and that we are able to do the program well.  I have to admit that we really have worked our selves out of a job.  We fill in when there are extra hands needed in the youngest class or organizing the kids.  But because the teachers are committed and the kitchen ladies are aplenty, it is functioning well.  Maricela organizes the lessons, and gets the supplies together for the crafts for the classes.  It makes it super easy for the teachers and the kids are memorizing scripture well!  We had a gathering time for an open mike for the kids to recite their verses.  (proudly!!)  We all cheered them on. :)  Brian and I have been looking at Fatima and asking ourselves as well as God "what next?"  Brian has vision for the area, and as time goes by and people come into his life.  The pieces have been coming together.  It is always a process, but one thing we know is that our God isn't a rushed God.  But when it's the time to do something, than we need to do it now!!  Prayer for Brian and where God is leading him.  

  We said good-bye to our friends, Randy, Donna and Annie this last Sunday.  They unexpectedly left 2 weeks early than we were expecting.  It is hard to so say good-bye to friends, but I am so glad for heaven.  What an awesome God!!  Which god would put together a place that we would be able to reunite with our fellow brothers and sisters?  My God does!  It makes me excited for heaven.  

   

May God Bless you!  May everything you do, do it with purpose.  

Clarissa

A few pictures.....

What does rain bring?

I have not seen so many crickets and stink bugs as I have here.  It's gross when you think about it.  In the evenings while walking back to the camper, I often hear a crunch from under my feet. lol  We just received word that in Hermosillo has been closing schools because of a cricket epidemic!  It reminds me of one of the plagues in Moses' time.  I can hardly imagine how bad it needs to get in order to cancel school. I know Cole and Mason would love it!!  I guess crickets is one of the things that goes along with rain.  It is so green around us, it doesn't at all look like a desert land.  The mountains are green with plant life, and it's hard to spot the town signs printed on the mountain sides with the lush plant life.  I must say that I am happy for the cows and horses.  Speaking of horses, today was a first for me to see horses grazing on the golf course greens.  I guess that's one way to keep the grass low.  :)

We have been trying to keep a consist schedule so we can accomplish some of our goals this year.  It's going pretty well.  Some days are better than others.  I do find that it's usually my schedule that is thrown out the window when either the boys or Brian's falls behind.  So I am constantly reviewing the schedules to see if I am piling on too much for them.  Or even just re-scheduling it so that it flows better. 

I am sure missing my dear sisters in Christ from back home.  I've been attending a women's Bible study the last couple of weeks, and I just miss you all!!  Even having friendships that are established.  Right now, the only girl that I interact with regularly is Leah. lol  There are just males at the mission center.  Any other females are either in Fatima, and which there is the language that keeps the relationship surface deep.  Then there are the women in San Carlos from church,  and I'm just trying to get to know who is who, and what is what.  Just trying to find good friendship for me.    (Titus 2:3-5)  In time!!  I am sure thankful for great leadership in P.Rich and Karen.  Isn't it awesome when you have a godly couple in your life that lays it out as it is.  No sugar coating nothing.  

There has been some major yard clean up in the last week, and with that we've met some of our "neighbors"!  Although it was short lived for them when we met them.  As some of you would have seen on Brian's facebook account, there was a whip snake and a rather large scorpion.  Apparently the snake whips you with it's tail.  Also the scorpion was the length of my hand.  eeewww!!  They can climb walls!!!  Sorry, they just creep me out.  Then with all this rain, I've been so close to stepping on quarter size toads.  They are kinda cute, and watching them try to eat a moth the size of their own body.  Kinda funny, but just the thought of stepping on one is gross.  Also the fact that they can get to be as big as melon.  They are huge here!  I'm going to try and get pictures and post them.  I've been having trouble with uploading them.  But it'll all be fixed now!!  

God bless you!!!  We miss you and look forward to how God is going to send our way with the church team. :)

Clarissa

Leah, me and the heat

Caring for Leah has been an adjustment to was the norm back home. My biggest concerns are dehydration and heat exposure.  First off, I am so thankful for the access we have to the A/C at the mission center.  With the A/C going in our camper, it would get up to 30-32C in the heat of the day.  Leah did well in the temps, but she also did nurse more than she would have in cooler temps.  So for me, I need to make sure that I'm taking in enough water for the both of us, and then some.  I had wondered if her night feedings would be more frequent, but they haven't.  Leah has taken an interest in food as we've sat down for meals.  She complains if she isn't sitting with us during our meal.   

Leah loves her water!  She's experienced her first shower in Mexico, and she like it.  I'd say that she like bathes more.  We only have access to showers, so I've been trying to figure out how I can give her a bath.  I am thankful for my friend Karen, she gave me a container that is going to work well for bathes.  Even mason is excited. Lol. 

With Leah being a blankie baby, I am so glad that I had found cotton musslin blankets at Target before we had left for mexico.  Single flannel blankets are too warm right now, so the musslin blankets are in constant use.  There are still times where they are even too hot.  I try to keep her exposure to the heat to a minimum, and everyone we encounter have been very accommodating.  I can say that we look forward to when it's cooler.  The little bit of time that Leah is outside, she sure enjoys it.  So come winter, she will be able to be outside all she wants!  


God bless,
Clarissa

One week down.... :)

I'm not sure how I can best explain what it's like to adjust to living differently for a number of times over the last full year.  Even though we've lived here for months before, we have been re-adjusting to what life will be like for us over the next year.  Even then, I know that in a few months time, life will be different then it is now.  Now, the mission center is really quiet.  Soon it will be full of people daily.  Looking even closer at our daily life,  we are needing discipline on our schedule that we need to keep!  It's pretty easy to let things slide, as life just tends to happen.  I need to make sure that Cole gets his schooling done both for the Mexican school, as well as for Canada.  On top of that, Cole doesn't like school!  (I should  clarify, it's the work that he'd rather not do).    A few things that have been a great hand up is that we are able to have help with his Spanish homework.  For the his school, just having your homework done for the next day gives you extra marks.

Leah is growing so fast!  Her hands are grasping what she wants to get a hold of, and she's loving her exersaucer.  She is now rolling over, and she rolls over every chance she gets.  Since we have no easy access to a bath tub, Leah has been joining us for her showers.  We are happy to say that she likes them, even though the water isn't really warm. (the water is air temperature).  Today I filled a larger plastic container so that she could sit and enjoy the water for a change.  I'm hoping to take her and the boys to the pool this week, so we can enjoy the heat without all the sticky sweat.

Brian has been busy getting everything  lined up  for the next year.  He's been searching for a Spanish teacher who is around right now to give him a jump start on his lessons.  He currently has his office at Jax Snax for his studies.  Which I'm a little envious of. :).

The kids program has been doing well.  There are new faces in the kitchen and the program has now settled with a core group of kids.  There is about 60 that make this core.  Absalon has been leading the singing, but he has been working on getting a kids worship team together.  He has asked Cole if he would be apart of this group.  Cole is super pumped, he has missed playing his guitar.  We will see how this will unfold.

God bless, and we miss you!
Clarissa

Our travel home

Eight days we drove to reach home in San Carlos, Mexico. I was pleasantly surprised how well we all traveled. (Leah especially.). We first headed to Montana to have a quick visit at the Art & Brenda's home. It was a wonderful surprise to be able to have a chat with Ittzy and Juan as well. We packed our camping gear so we could freely take our time on our way down. We stopped at a KOA'S, and I highly recommend it to anyone. Even if you stay in one of their cabins. I love that almost ever KOA has a pool.
We stopped at the Lava hot springs to check out their natural hot spring hot tubs and also enjoyed their Olympic size pool with slides. When we drove by this pool excitedly exclaimed " this is my favoritest place I've never seen!!.....well kiss my girlfriend!! ?what?! He seems to come up with some odd liners lol. Also they have a train that goes by every 2 hours that blows its whistle at night. ( one of the joys of camping!) We were very ready to make it to Mexico after this. Mason had asked everyday "is this Mexico?" Brian and I were ready to say yes to this daily question. Needless to say, our last 3 days we pushed a little harder.
Sunday when we crossed the border, we were greeted at the visa office with 3 of the popular things Mexico has to offer. Squeegee men, someone else trying to sell us their goods, and another asking for money for their family member that has cancer. Also while going through Hermosillo, a nice reminder of one of their traffic laws. How to make a left turn at the light. ( you turn from the lane second to the left.) But none the less we made it home by 5:30. We managed to get a little settled and make it to the Sunday evening service in Fatima. It doesn't feel like we had left. (besides the mission center being so very quiet). So my day today as been solely nesting in our home. Brian even commented that we could fit 5 in our camper. :)

Hello Family & Friends

Well our time here in Manitoba is quickly coming to an end. We have determined that our departure date will be on August 12. We are very excited to get back down to Mexico and back to somewhat of a normal life again. As we prepare we ask that you please pray that God would provide the remaining amount of support that is needed. We are a bit further away from the mark than I would like to be. Having said that we have also seen God pull off some small miracles so there is no doubt in our mind that we are on the right track. He will provide it in His time, its just time for me to be patient.
We thank you for remembering us in your prayers and ask that you pray for our financials, for our family as we finish up odds and ends and also for us and our families as the time to say good by is just around the corner.

Hope you all have a great weekend!
God Bless
Brian