Prayer Request

We'd appreciate your prayers for a family that has been attending our Sunday morning home Bible study.  I've mentioned them in our updates.  Jenny is American and each summer takes her kids to the USA to visit family and enjoy some American culture.

I don't know many details of a car accident they were involved in very recently (yesterday?).  A close relative was killed and Jenny's daughter, Chloe, underwent surgery this morning on a broken femur.  Sounds awful.  Appreciate your prayers for them.

July 2010 - Our Family

We've run out of wall space for taking photos so I decided to just take one in front of the picture book section.  One of our supporting churches wanted an updated family photo for their directory so I hope this will work.  We might be the only ones in their directory with a background.  Oh well...it's definitely more natural! 

Maybe one day we'll actually be able to have some shirts that go together.   Oh well.  We're just glad to see the boys have two decent shirts tucked away in their closet that aren't stained or holey.  Dayton used to bite holes into his shirts which for some reason annoyed his parents to no end. 

Handlebulls?

Missed the photo when I saw them approaching but snapped this while driving behind them.

Nice bull horns.

Nice tread wear too.

Made From Our Family Photos

June & July Ministry Update (from email)

June_July 2010 ABCD Update

SCORPION!

I almost jumped out of my skin when I walked around the front of the truck and my eyes glanced past the biggest, black scorpion I have ever seen.  I literally fell onto the side of the truck.

You've got to be kidding me.  It was a dried up banana peel.  I just had to take a couple pictures.  It does sort of look like a scorpion to you, doesn't it?!?

July 4th in Mexico

Our teammates and good friends, Brock and Heather Hower, invited just about every American citizen they know who live here in Mexico to join them for a little taste of "home" last Sunday, July 4th.

We enjoyed grilled hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, tacos.  Little Annie wanted a corn tortilla around her hot dog instead of a hot dog bun! (see pic below).

For a dessert finale we enjoyed a traditional Mexican tres leches cake made to look like a USA flag, made locally with 49 perfectly lined up stars (sorry Arizona...lol)...how does one put 50 stars in lines?...and missing a few stripes too...but hey...it looked good.

We played some games (like wheelbarrow races with real wheelbarrows!), sang patriotic songs, including the Star Spangled Banner (with at least 4 verses as I recall), listened to our co-worker, Rollie Smith, recite an original poem for the occasion, gave the pledge of allegiance, and also listened to a complete reading of the Declaration of Independence (I was honored to do the reading), and topped off with fireworks.  It was a great party and we enjoyed being together and celebrating our national heritage.

"The Godfather" (a small exaggeration)

Beth and I were honored to represent Tucker Hower, the oldest child of our teammates, Brock and Heather, as "los padrinos" (the godparents), at Tucker's kindergarten graduation. This is a big deal and we enjoyed such an important role in this momentous occasion.  La madrina, Beth, presented Tucker with his diploma (godmothers presented to the boys, godfathers to the girls).

The boys all wore suits (tailor-made for about $20), and the girls wore lovely dresses. They needed these outfits because they wrapped up the ceremony with some sort of ballroom dancing/waltz or whatever. I have no idea...I'm not cultured enough to know about this stuff!  Keep in mind this is a rural, farming area...the families who have their children in this two room (albeit large rooms...two buildings is more like it) school are not upper class and probably not even middle class.  It's amazing to me how they like to put on the ritz for this kind of event.  Family and social milestones are so important to the people here in Mexico.

June 31

Much to my surprise and chagrin, I discovered that the desktop calendar which I taped to my office wall contains a June 31 (seriously!).  I don't know when we started to have a June 31, but the same calendar set contains a July 1 for this day as well.  So, that's good. 

I just noticed that each month/page has this disclaimer:

"The Publisher has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all calendar information and cannot accept responsibility for any errors contained therein."

So, I guess since I bought this calendar and put it up on my wall...it's MY fault!  My apologies to everyone out there for the confusion.  I didn't notice the mistake until just a few minutes ago, so I was under the impression all day today that it was merely July 1.  It never occurred to me that it could possibly be June 31 as well.

Just thought I'd clarify the situation for you.