back to school

So, I feel like all I have done for a week is get stuff ready for school.

As most of you know our kids are in private school. That is really the only way to do it here since we are foreigners.

Public schools are really bad and we are thankful that we have great supporters that give us special funds for schooling. We couldn't do it without them - Thanks!

I was talking to a friend who has her children in the public school system. There is major overcrowding in the schools. They have a few different shifts each day. In one day a classroom might see 150 students. There are morning shifts, afternoon and evening shifts. My friend was telling me that her daughters class has 59 students in it!!! Can you imagine. Another friend of mine is running into problems because two of her sons got the morning shifts and her other son got the 2-6 shift. This means her older son (who is on Josiahs baseball team) will no longer be able to to play baseball or do any afterschool act.

Today Josiah had to go to the school and take all his school supplies and see the school. I got to go with him and it was really fun. They have a restaurant at the school so I took Josiah out for breakfast. He will not eat lunch there but he does eat a snack and he can get something everyonce in a while from the restaurant. It was fun to sit at the restaurant and realize just how blessed we are to get to have Josiah in a private school. I was thinking about my friend, while looking at Josiahs school, and how she was probably sitting in a long line waiting to beg for her son to get into school during the morning shift. We are truly blessed.


So, we have to buy all the kids textbooks etc. This is the quantity of stuff Josiah needed (there are 3 books missing)

48 colored pencils, 6 pencils, 6 red pencil, 9 notebooks, 4 glue sticks, 1 bottle of glue, 6 erasers, 2 pencil sharpeners, 15 textbooks, 2 folders, 1 pack of copy paper, 2 packs of clay, 2 scissors,1 ruler, 2 paintbrushes, 1 walkman, 1 set of watercolors, 1 puzzle, 1 board game, 1 pack of colored paper, 1 pack of foamy, 1 box of kleenex, 1 box of babywipes, 2 clear folders, 2 packs of notecards, 5 uniforms, back pack, and lunchbox.

All the books have to be covered with contak paper. The notebooks have to first be covered with colored paper (depending on the subject) then with contak. All the other supplies have to have his name on it. Needless to say I have been spending the last week or so getting school supplies ready. I am glad it is over.

Abigail also started school today. I need to go pick her up in 45 minutes. She was so excited.

We are so blessed to have three great kids. Thanks to all of you that support us and make it possible for our kids to get a good education. Love you!

We are home

Hi everyone. Sorry two months have passed since I last wrote. We have been on a crazy trip to the US the past 5 weeks. We had a great time but we are really glad to be home and in our own beds etc.
We had family pictures taken while we were gone. One of our friends is an increadibly gifted photographer and we were blessed to have her take our pictures. Here is the link to her site and a few of our pictures, or you can click on the link under blogs I read (Its the first one listed)
http://www.amyrosekingphotography.com/
Lots happened on our trip and I can't wait to write more about it. But, right now I need to go work on unpacking.

Hannah turned 2 yesterday! I can hardly believe it. She had a great day and loved all the attention she got. She got lots of phone calls and singing. The got sung to in Italian, English, and Spanish!

We did not have a party we just had cake and presents with our family. Hopefully sometime in the next week or two we can do something for her.

Our AIMers have now been here for two weeks (part of why I haven't posted in a while). We absolutely love them and really think we got a great team. The kids can't get enough of them. One day when I picked Abigail up from school she looked at me with a disgusted look and said "why didn't you bring the AIMers?".

The team is pictures above with Hannah waiting to eat breakfast. Unfortunately Aaron McCall was absent for the picture.

They are settled in for the most part in their new houses. There are still a few details that need to be addressed, broken fridge and water heater, but otherwise they are settled in.

Today was the annual school program. The kids did a great job and really had fun while doing it. Josiah even read a short little poem about fathers. It was so amazing to see him, on stage, infront of around 600 people, reading in Spanish! I was very proud.

Each class represented a country and danced the traditional dance. Josiah's class represented Brazil and Abigail's class represented the USA (Hawaii).

I must admit the costumes where a little scary when they first arrived at my house. We, as well as many of our friends and family, got a lot of laughs out of Josiah's costume. Luckily it didn't look as silly when the whole class was wearing it.

The kids still have one month left of school. They get out the last of June.

This next month is crazy for us. This coming week a professor from ACU is coming to help our team with evalutations. Our dear friends the Brednichs are also coming, fom Mexico City, to participate and they will be staying at our house. It can get pretty crazy with 6 children!!

The following week 3 elders from Sunset will be visiting us. We are really excited about their visit. They are three wonderful men that we look up to a lot. It will be good to have them here. Then there will be a few days of rest and the youth groups from Clovis and Sunset are coming on a mission trip.

Also wanted to let you know that two new families have recently contacted us and asked us if we can start churches in their houses. We are excited about it. Because the two houses are about 40 minutes from eachother we are only able to meet with each house every other week. They meet by themselves the weeks that we can not be there. One family used to go to church many years ago and then quit. They seem to be good at coming up with excuses, we are praying that this time they are more committed.

Thanks for reading.

PS 28 days and we will be in Houston watching the Red Sox stomp the Astros!!!

and getting Mannys autograph!! Why not dream big! Seriously anyone have any unique ideas of how we can get the players autograph? Let me know.

Please Pray

I just got off of the phone with a dear friend of mine Claudia. I am so scared for her and her family. I wanted to share this with you guys so that you could be praying for her.

She has been struggling with depression for almost 1 1/2 years now. This week she has become suicidal. She called me to let me know that they were going to be admiting her into the clinic for a while. She wanted to make sure that I checked in with her family and especially her husband.

It was a very sad and wierd conversation. I still feel very "yucky".

The bad thing is that most of the Christians for their church have headed out of town. Her mother just flew to the states this last week so spend the summer with Claudias brothers. Two of the other families that they are very close to have gone to visit their families.

Our AIMers will be landing in two hours. We are going to be pretty busy this week getting things going for them but we are definately going to need to be with this family a lot. Please pray for us to be good with our time and make sure we don't neglect anything because of the over load of things to get done.

Claudia is the lady in the white shirt top left. Please be praying for her and her family. Thanks.

We had a very fun weekend. The 5 churches that we work with in Guadalajara and surrounding area got together for the annual retreat. There were around 80 in attendance which I thought was a great number. Mothers Day was Saturday and many families were not able to attend because of that. Mothers Day is a very important day here and everyone wanted to be with their mothers.

The retreat was a lot of fun and it was very encouraging. I am including a few pictures to help you see what the weekend was like.

On Sunday after worship there were two baptisms. It was great. These two women that were baptised have a great story to tell. Their family (extended) has had a ton of problems. Even as recent as 6 months ago they were not in speaking terms and had nothing to do with eachother. Now they are living in the same house and becoming good friends. It is amazing the changes that have been happening in their lives.

Each church was in charge of a meal. The church in zero del cuatro was incharge of Sunday lunch. They made Barbacoa. Sounds a lot like barbeque but that is not what it is. It is a soup made out of vegetables and goat or lamb. The meat and vegetables all cook together. They are served seperately. The meat is removed and served on the side to be eaten with tortillas. The kids really enjoyed it and so did I. Here is a picture of Abigail enjoying the "meat on a bone" as she likes to call it.

This is what was left in the pan after we were done eating. I was informed that they will not waste any of the meat. They were going go clean up the rest of the skull (remove the tongue, and any meat that might be in and around it. They were also going to eat the other organs that are not pictured! It really was tasty.

Last night Josiah lost another tooth. I think he looks adorable and just wanted to share a picture with you.