Trip to Mexico

I, LeRoy, went to Reynosa, MX yesterday. We left after lunch and were back by early evening. I was just along for the ride, but a friend of mine has made some connections with a Mexican doctor who does medical outreach as well as with a fellow named Hector, who runs a homeless shelter.

It ended up being quite the experience. I was surprised to see how many people were wearing masks. Even the waiters at the restaurant. We brought a bunch of clothes to the pastor of the church where we had visited about a month ago (which I guess technically isn't allowed), and I was able to visit with him for a while and hear him share some of his joys and concerns. We also dropped off a water system for Dr. Reyna. These systems are amazing! Basically you take a litre of water and 1Tablespoon of salt, run it through the filter, and it makes enough chlorine and other stuff to purify 2000 gal of water.

Next we went to Hector's ministry. Wow, he has quite a story of what God has done in his life! He takes in immigrants and gives them a place to sleep and relax for 3 days, after that they have to be doing Bible study, look for work etc. They have church service every day. While I was there, I saw a bunch of people sitting, reading the Bible by themselves or in groups. We brought them a few boxes of experiencing God books/workbooks. We heard that the ladies of the group had been fasting and praying for them to come.

A side note to all of this. Hector said their water pump was broken so one of the guys with some fixing skill went to take a look. Well, it was beyond a simple fix, but when he got home he was talking to a plumber friend that decided to donate a brand new pump for them. So this evening one of the guys was going to run it across for them. Isn't it amazing how the Lord moves and works?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEROY!!!!

Today is LeRoy's 28th birthday!!!! I have to say I am very thankful he's part of my life. He's such a great daddy and husband, and willing to continually work on becoming even better in his roles. Thanks to friends of ours, we're able to celebrate today without the girls. I'm taking him out for supper, and we don't have to rush eating or make sure we're back at certain time. I'm thinking there'll still be homework to get done tonight, but we'll take it as it comes. We can eat a meal without worrying about food being thrown on the floor, or someone screaming cause they don't want to eat. Maybe it's more of a treat for me that it's his birthday. haha

What Are We Up To?

The last couple days have felt more crazy again, trying to have the computer between the two of us to do homework, so not much "fun" time can be found on here. All day Sunday LeRoy was working on our prayer card, trying to get it ready to send to the print shop here on campus. Hopefully that can happen this week, so we for sure have them before leaving here and we're ready to hand them out.

Yesterday was our day to kidnap a teacher (2 actually) and do something without giving any warning to anybody that we wouldn't be in our classes. It was a great day to enjoy with the whole class and families. We went for breakfast at iHop and then spent the day at the....beach. What else would we do around here? Brooklyn was quite excited in the morning when I gave her the option of going to daycare or the beach.

And tonight is our grad supper put on by the first semester class. All we know is that we have to be there ready to begin at 5:00 sharp. There is a program after as well, but it's all a surprise I guess.

And one more thing before studying begins today....Emma finally has her fourth tooth. YAY!!!! And this one came with no signs or symptoms which was a very nice surprise. Have a great week:)

This Week

We were privileged to finally meet our fellow missionaries from Mexico this week. They decided they wanted to come see us, meet us, and start getting to know each other. Don & Minna Thiessen (he was our prof at SBC) came along with Alvira Friesen and Elma Janzen and it was a great time of visiting, getting some info on Mexico and the different cities we may live in, and laughter. Plus we all got to go to Olive Garden for supper which was quite a treat for us.

We do know a little more now about where we may be and what we may be doing, so our minds are full of different things running through them. There are two cities that are options for us. We will be in one of them and our great friends Dallas and Tara will be in the other city. It's very nice to know we'll have friends and someone we know at least 2 1/2 hours away. For me, it gives me a bit more peace knowing I will know someone in the country. Someone we will be able to see every now and then. And depending which city we live in, will depend on what we'll be doing. So far now I'll just leave it at that, until we know a little more specifically what will be happening. Plus it'd be hard to explain it all simply in a blog. So when we get home we can maybe talk a bit more about that all, and hopefully we'll be closer to knowing exactly what will be happening.

We are looking forward to another weekend starting tomorrow, and that we can then say only 3 weeks left of classes. It's actually a month today that we will leave RGBI and head for home. YAY!!! I'll try not to mention this in every blog, but it is tempting, as then you can see how excited I must be.

New Pictures

There are some new pictures for you to enjoy of our visit with Jessy, and our holiday in San Antonio, as well as some general photos. Click on the link at the top.

HAPPY EASTER!!!

This weekend has had some moments when it has felt like Easter, but for the most part it has felt like just another weekend. Thankfully it's not all about the feelings but knowing that our Jesus Christ is ALIVE. HE IS RISEN!!! HE IS RISEN INDEED!!!

We were able to enjoy a couple days last week as a family on a short holiday to San Antonio. We had so much fun walking down the River Walk (it's absolutely gorgeous), enjoying a "different" atmosphere for supper at Rainforest Cafe (with a completely jungle feel), playing at the Children's Museum, and relaxing at our hotel. We swam one afternoon, but they had their outdoor pool so cold, even the hot sun couldn't keep us warm which resulted in Brooklyn turning blue she was so cold. I think she was still shivering after a hot bath and ready to go for supper. It was a great break from the normal sites and happenings here, but we were ready to come back after 2 days. It's amazing how tiring 2 toddlers can be when they don't have their normal routines of naps and bedtimes.

On the river walk.

Yesterday morning 2 friends here put on an Easter hunt for the kids of the language school. Brooklyn had so much fun looking for these bright plastic eggs that were filled with candy, and Emma just had fun running around shaking them. Then later in the day we were invited to a family gathering..haha..to Dallas & Tara's house.

Something that has caught our attention this Easter, living in another country, is how Good Friday doesn't seem to be too much of a holiday, or at least not nearly like it is at home. Stores and restaurants are all still open. Churches have services in the evening, after people are finished work. It's a new concept for us, and makes us think about why we do the things we do in the manner that we do them.

HAPPY EASTER TO YOU ALL AND WE'LL SEE YOU IN 6 WEEKS (or less for some of you)

2 More Sleeps

We are so excited to be finally going on a short holiday this Wednesday to Friday. We will be heading to San Antonio to relax and see some new sites. Well, relax as much as possible with 2 toddlers. But we are mostly just excited to get away from here, see something new, and spend time as a family with no other distractions. Since moving here, the farthest we've been is the beach, which is lots of fun, but only 1 1/2 hours away. We need something different, before all the packing and last of the studying begins. Before we come home and see how busy we could be seeing everybody we want to see while preparing for what's ahead. Right now it feels like life is full of excitement as we look ahead as to what is all coming. It's extremely hard to focus on studying, which is why I'm writing here instead of brainstorming for my next paper. We have 5 weeks and 2 days until we graduate, which means about 6 1/2 weeks and we'll be in Manitoba. YAY!!!! Time has really flown by, and sometimes it doesn't feel like we've been here this long. But I know once we hit the Canadian border, it'll hit me a lot more how much I really miss home. And I really hope that water is all gone by the time we come through.

More Pics

I have added more pictures to the March folder. Click at the top to go to our Pictures site.

HUGE ANSWERED PRAYER

God is so Good and today we heard amazing news from our friends back home. Some of you know Jake and Ruth Giesbrecht and their long battle to keep their foster daughter in their home. Today they were told that Mary is to remain in their home. A huge answer to prayer. Thank you to all of you who prayed for them. They felt all the prayers, and were quite at peace throughout this process. Now they can breathe freely once again, without the fear of their daughter being taken away. Praise God!!!

The Girls

Here is 2 videos of the girls. When you're done watching to first one, just click next on the bottom right of the card thing. The one video is of Emma, learning to stand up in the middle of the room a few weeks ago, and of her today walking. As of 2 days ago, she's walking everywhere. We're very excited for her. The other video is of Brooklyn and her friend Carter keeping cool on these hot days. Also taken today, in his pool he shares with her. Enjoy!!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Jessy Was Here

This week we were excited to have our friend Jessy out for a few days. She's a mutual friend of ours and Dallas and Tara's so we all hung out a lot together. We left the studies alone for a couple days, other than classes, and had lots of fun. We went to a Mexican restaurant close by, us girls went for pedicures (at WalMart, but still fun), and yesterday we spent the day at the beach. We checked out the weather before hand, and saw it would be a perfect day. It started off cool and windy, but quickly turned hot. We thought we took enough precautions, but apparently it wasn't enough. We all (except the kids for the most part) burned, and got either a little bit of sun stroke, or very sick with it. Dallas got the worst end of the sun stroke, and Jessy got the worst burn. She could hardly walk this morning before heading to the airport. Poor little Jessy. Hope you're hanging in there:) I realized I didn't get too many pics of this week, so I'll have to grab more from Tara yet. But here is one of Jessy with Emma. The girls loved having her here, another person to get attention from.