I Just Like This Photo

Beth took this photo yesterday.

I don't know why, but I just like it. The colors, the subject and her distracted eyes, the symmetrical lines interrupted by the occasional object grab my senses and invite me to gaze.

Vaqueros, Cowpokes, Buckaroos...

Before the big birthday bash for Tucker, Silas and Annie Hower, the kids got to take turns riding the horses Friday evening. From the top...Kendra, Tara and Ben Smith and our two boys...Dayton and Cameron (in his familiar horse riding pose).

Oompa Loompa Doompadee Doo...

This week's elementary science class co-op included a taste of "Willy Wonka-type flowers." In continuing their studies of insects, the kids made these "flowers" with dish washing scrubbers and then put sugar water into them to attract bees and other creatures.

Beth put Cameron and Dayton's flowers in with some real plants in our patio. The next day it was so chilly that we didn't see any creatures buzzing, flying or crawling around outside. So we've had no success in attracting anything yet. Oh, except for Kristin's little 2 year-old boy, Justin. He discovered the sweet water and was observed dipping his finger into them and overheard saying, "Yum!"

Maybe Willy Wonka would have been proud of our "flowers" but this was supposed to be a science experiment!

Three in One

It's not very often that we have three unrelated events going on at once at the community center. I took these pictures last Thursday afternoon. We have our new intern, Sarah, who is teaching a kids' English class, a theology by extension class in another room, and another English class for adults in a third room. It's great to see the Lord using this property to provide a variety of opportunities to help both the unsaved community and believers as well.

Clay Creations (Science Class - Insects)

Rebecca made either a bee or maybe the tooth-fairy.


I honestly don't know what Tara made for us here. It should be some sort of insect, but it appears it was in need of acupuncture!


I don't know who made this little creature. I'm not sure what it is either but it appears to have the Michael Jordan tongue-thing going. I'm sure it could do a pretty impressive slam dunk with all those legs!

Co-Op Classes

This past Thursday was our 2nd week of Co-Op classes. I didn't get any photos of the literature clubs, but here are shots of the elementary science class, the junior/senior high logic class and the junior/senior high speech class (taken from upstairs).

Annual Men's Leadership Planning Meeting

What more can I say other than despite the boring title, it was an interesting meeting. I always enjoy the fellowship of the leaders of the area Bible churches.

As is routine the churches take turns giving an annual update of their progress or regress (as the case can be) and prayers are offered in support of each one. It seemed 2008 was a difficult year for many of the churches, but there were encouraging reports of new believers and of resolutions to a number of challenging issues. There's no doubt about it, these leaders have a difficult calling and task from the Lord. Pray for the church leaders in Mexico.

An Ode To Peanut

Here's another risky post I suppose. There's a word in it that was absolutely forbidden in my childhood household. We've lightened up on that word in my generation. My wife says her dad used it all the time...usually his pet name for his kids. Wow! What a difference a family makes!

Anyway, Cameron is learning some poetry in our Thursday co-op which I'm helping to teach. In his English textbook we came across a lesson touching on poetry as well. We looked online and learned even more about limericks in particular. I have to admit that poetry is a huge weakness in my training so we worked on learning it together. I couldn't remember the rules. So...with the rhyming and rhythm patterns in hand, we took to pen and tried to write a limerick about our dog. Hereto forthwith is our creation (read at your own risk!):

Ode to Peanut (a limerick)

I have a dog that's a mutt
She has a big head and butt
But thin is her belly
Like bread without jelly
And that's why we call her Peanut!

Stuff Just Pops Up

Last week the return to ESL classes got underway at the community center. Turns out the afternoon time works well mainly for adults who work, but not so well for most youth who, believe it or not, often have classes starting from noon on through through the afternoon.

That discovery led me to decide on Saturday to open up a new class this week on Monday morning for anyone who found this time to work better for them. It will be a 6 week conversational class, Monday to Wednesday from 10 to 11:30 a.m. So with only an announcement at church on Sunday as our advertisement, I started with the promise from about 5 youth to come.

On Monday I had two and one of them told me he has swimming on Tuesdays and wouldn't come on Tuesdays. On Tuesday I still had two as another gal joined the class. Today I had five! There's at least one more who intends to come in a week or so when his school schedule changes. These are all from the church but that's fine for now. I have never taught a conversation class before...no curriculum. Just learning more about how to do this and they make willing "guinea pigs." They seem to be very happy with the class and are enjoying it. We laugh a lot. I like that.

I'll have to decide how to proceed after February when we scheduled to switch back to using a textbook. Maybe we'll still keep the conversation option open for then too. It's really a part of any class, even if it uses a textbook. We'll see how the Lord leads these ideas.

Lost a Good Friend

We got word tonight that one of our supporters and very good friends has gone to be with his Savior and Lord. Donald Rapson was like a grandfather to our kids when we visited the Rapsons in Parkersburg, WV. He leaves behind a wonderful and sweet wife, Madelon. Pray for Madelon and the Rapson family, would you?

Don had been developing Alzheimer's for several years now. He used to greet us and tell us the same story every time we visited them...about how he first met my in-laws as they were leaving for the mission field. We always had to smile and thank God for the impression the Hanna family obviously left on his failing memory.

He and Madelon owned (and still do own) a Christian supply center that was packed with many more books and Bibles than trinkets and used their profits to generously support missionaries around the world...including the Hannas and more recently our family too.

Don was so happy to give us his Mercury Grand Marquis when we were raising support. It was a beautiful car and he had taken meticulous care of it as he always did with his cars. It served us well into Mexico. He and his son, Paul, generously offered to help me buy our first laptop that we used from 2001 all the way to 2008. It is now being used by a Mexican couple for their office work as they try to start a Christian bookstore in Querétaro.

The past couple years Don could no longer work in the office. He still loved driving and always drove Madelon to the store and puttered around a bit and I suppose most days he'd come back home. He spent a lot of time sitting in his chair and he napped quite a bit as you might expect. He had a little plastic box with Scriptures in it. He always pulled one out at meal time and read it and then prayed. He always read his Bible and spent many hours in prayer during the day. He loved to do crossword puzzles. He chuckled a lot. I'm not sure he always understood what was going on these past couple years but he almost always carried a smile and a gentle laugh.

This past Tuesday morning he and Madelon were at their store, and he went out to get something from the van but ended up driving away wearing his light jacket, cap and gloves in the cold weather. No one knows why he left or what he was thinking. Perhaps with the bitter cold he thought he was back home in Michigan. I read a newspaper online quoting his son, Ernie, who thought maybe Don was heading home...to Michigan. He talked a lot about their Michigan days.

Apparently, he drove up Highway 2 along the Ohio River and after many miles, turned down a country road there in the mountains that line the river. I'm not sure how it happened but the van ended up wrecked down an embankment. Much later about 6:30 p.m. his vehicle was discovered. No gas. Battery dead. Key in the ignition. But no Don. A search was started but it was dark and bitterly cold and too cold to safely search for him. The search resumed Wednesday during daylight hours...and again on Thursday...finally called off on Friday...but someone did find Don on Friday evening. He was lying in the woods not too far from the van.

We're heartbroken to hear how he left us and especially how he left Madelon. He joins his Lord for which we rejoice. May God grant comfort and peace to the Rapson family. We love you. We grieve and cry with you. I'm so sorry we can't be there to say good-bye to Don and to hug the family. Our God loves you.

Don and Madelon Rapson

Don and Paul ("Race Car Paul")...and the little plastic Scripture box

"A Day Without Chili, Is Like a Day Without Sun"

Hope everyone has a sunny day today!

We're up and at 'em this morning ready for our first day of our area homeschool co-op. Should be a fun day and I'm looking forward to teaching POETRY! Woo-hoo! Now all I have to do is understand it myself and we'll be fine!

I think I can handle 4th and 5th grade poetry though...it's fun. We'll be using "Love that Dog" by Sharon Creech to introduce the topic. Sweet little book. Be sure to read it. Too bad it wasn't around when I learned a little poetry in elementary school.

The first ever U.S. Children's Poetry Laureate (Jack Prelutsky) has this to say concerning whether he always liked poetry...I love his answer:

Did you always like poetry?
No, in fact there was a time when I couldn't stand the stuff. In grade school, I had a teacher who left me with the impression that poetry was the literary equivalent of liver. I was told that it was good for me, but I wasn't convinced. When I rediscovered poetry in my twenties, I decided I would write about things that kids really cared about, and that I would make poetry delightful.


So, there you have it...chili, sun, dog, poetry, love and liver. Let's do it!

MK Homeschooling Co-Op (Querétaro)

Dayton took this photo for us, although I didn't ask him to climb the stairs to take it! Here's our first meeting among parents/teachers for our new MK homeschooling co-op. This is a neat development to see the parents get involved and combine the many talents and abilities of a number of the MK parents. We've got several classroom teachers among us which is a big help.

Beth will continue the Apologia science course with the lower elementary. Sharla B. will be teaching Logic. Denise L. will be teaching Speech and Debate. The science will run 2 hours and those upper level courses will run during those 2 hours. We'll then have 4 age/grade levels of Literature Clubs. Lori S. and Sara M. will teach the lower elementary (grades 1-3). Denise L. and I (Alan) will teach the upper elementary (grades 4-5). Le'Ann D. will teach our junior highers (grades 5-8) and Beth will teach the high school group.

We begin this Thursday with our first ever day of classes! I'm not sure we'll see 100% participation from our local MK families but our tentative list has 27 students included from 9 different families! Wow!

Pray for this weekly co-op session. We're excited to see how this will develop and meet the educational needs of a number of missionary families who homeschool their children here in central Mexico.

Dayton might have also taken this shot of Caleb and Haley who were happily working on their school work during our parents' meeting.

Library Update

We continue slogging our way through getting more books input into our online catalog. We've now topped 4,500 books entered!

Take a peek here:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/alanbethcam

I Probably Shouldn't Post This...

...but that never stopped me before! This is really funny and I just can't resist.

Recently, we had some traveling guests passing through on a long trip. I will be nice enough to not reveal their identity...for reasons that will soon be obvious.

After arriving from a long day on the road here in Mexico, the family joined us in gathering around the table for prayer. One of the children of our guests went into the bathroom a few feet away along with Dayton in order to wash hands. This is the same bathroom in which the dad had spent a few minutes just before dinner.

Apparently, I was the only one who overheard what was sharply blurted out...

"Eeeewww...it stinks in here! It smells just like in the car!"

Well...as a fellow dad who also deals with life and food in Mexico and on the road quite routinely...I have to admit...I can't relate.

Just kidding! LOL!

Just Arrived

It doesn't get much better than this. Fresh roasted coffee beans from Antigua and Huehuetenango in Guatemala. If I could email or fax you the luscious aroma emanating from these two bags, I would certainly do it!

A caffeinated-java juice hug to Bryan and Lori for bringing this back with them from their recent trip to visit her missionary parents down there!

Dayton the Clown Boy

I don't know if anyone will manage to watch this whole video...God bless you if you do! This is a sample of what we have to live with. I'll admit it...we didn't make Dayton the way he is...God did. Don't blame us!

Ha-ha...enjoy!

Day 3 - Reading Plan Update

I don't know if anyone is joining with us in the daily Bible reading for 2009 using this ESV plan that you see in the left column (the iPhone/iPod Touch-looking window), but here's a few tips I've figured out with this since Day 1.

I noticed on my own computers that the day doesn't seem to advance properly and the reading stayed on Day 1 even after Day 1. However, I've discovered a few things about this.

First, I haven't yet gotten any progress by using the Safari browser on our iMac. I believe it needs a setting change for cookies and I'm not taking the time to figure it out. However, in Firefox on the iMac and on my HP, I've seen the day progress. However, in either case, it is not automatic. In other words, on Day 2 (yesterday), the little window in the column still showed Day 1's readings.

Today, I discovered the way to fix that. You need to actually click on the "LISTEN" audio link for each passage of the day. Then, refresh the blog page and it will advance to the next day's readings up to the current day.

So, if you're reading it without listening to it, the readings won't advance. I discovered that I could even click on "LISTEN" for all the readings at once. The result, of course, was a jumble of noise from the audio going for 4 different passages. However, just getting them started was enough. I then hit the "refresh" button on my Firefox browser and the readings advanced to Day 2. I did this again with the Day 2 readings and they advanced to Day 3. Today is Day 3 so that's as far as it will advance.

I noticed too that in the Safari browser, there was an annoying Google ad at the top of the reading. However, in Firefox, I use Adblock Plus and that may be why I don't see that ad in Firefox.

If you're like me, that little window is too small to really read this length of material. So, I went to the ESV website and discovered that there are several reading plans online, including the one that is being used here. It is called the "One-Year Tract Bible Reading Plan." They have at least one other 1 year reading plan that looks more familiar to me. However, so far I really like this one. It keeps the passages to one chapter and spans 4 different books at once. This is refreshing to me.

They also have a link for RSS feeds. So, in my Firefox browser, I've enabled the RSS feed on my bookmark toolbar so each day I can quickly and easily go straight to the reading page and get the full-page view of the reading and am able to read and hear the audio. I like hearing the audio while following along. Beth is much better at listening so she typically just listens while doing something else. (I can't do that and still absorb it.)

Here's the link to the RSS feed page that also contains the subscription button for placing the RSS feed in your browser: http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/share/rss2.0/one.year.tract/

Again, I don't know if anyone reading this blog post is even interested in doing this annual reading plan of the Bible, but if you haven't decided one way or the other yet, we're only on Day 3 and you could quickly get caught up this weekend and attempt this journey with us. We're enjoying it thoroughly.

Would you let me know if you're joining us in this reading journey? It's great to know if others are attempting it and with a little bit of accountability, we can encourage each other to keep up along the way. I hope we hear from at least one person!

Happy New Year 2009!

Praise God for one more year in our lives and in the ongoing history of mankind. We're one more day and one more year closer to the imminent return of our Lord Jesus Christ and I hope He will find us faithful and full of faith when He returns and in each moment until He does.

Today is a great day to start reading through the Bible in a year. A few weeks ago I read about a 15 year old young man and believer (named Christian) who lives in southern Mexico. He was kidnapped for ransom a couple months ago and was released after 76 days in captivity. A couple weeks into his captivity, he was offered a television to watch but he asked to have his Bible returned to him instead. His captors complied.

Here's an excerpt of a family report following his release:

My first question to Christian was, “Did God teach you something through this time?” His answer was “A LOT!” When he was first taken he hid his Bible on him in his clothing but they found it and took it away for the first 2 weeks. Then they asked him if he would like to have a television. He told them, “No thanks, but I would love my Bible.” So during the rest of the 61 days captive he would read the Bible. He was able to read it through once and almost twice. He began to concentrate more on specific books after finishing the Bible the first time. He was able to take some notes about what he was learning until they took his pen away. Then he began to tear a piece of paper and put it in the spot where the Lord had taught him something. By the end of his captivity, in his own words, his Bible “was really fat.”


I don't know about you but I find this to be very inspiring in a number of ways. Ultimately, I find it inspiring that a boy would choose God's Word over a connection to the outside world, to entertainment and news via a television. We who are not held captive by kidnappers at this moment in time...do we also choose God's Word and our connection with God above all else?

I've added a new gadget to the blog in the left column. It posts a daily read through the Bible passage in ESV and you can scroll through each day and read it along. Another neat feature is that for each passage there's a button to click in order to listen to the same passage. I have never read the English Standard Version but I looked at the website for it and discovered it is reviewed quite positively by John Piper (a favorite of mine) and other scholars. Perhaps you'll find it easy to listen to the audio for reading through the Bible in 2009. Feel free to drop in every day to listen and/or to read it in the scrollable box.

We know how difficult life and temptations and trials can and will be. Each day of this new year will bring us new challenges and opportunities in our walk with Christ. May we all be faithful in our reading of God's Word and in our devotion to God in 2009. God's grace and peace to you.