Merry Christmas!

It is Christmas Eve and I am sitting at my aunt's in southern California. Hardly seems possible that she is the last one left of her generation. Tomorrow we will be a small bunch with just 4 of us. Aunt Royetta was such a spark and she will be missed but she is spending Christmas with Jesus. Vonda Mom too is spending her first Christmas in heaven. Makes me a little jealous.

On the other hand, life continues here and there is much work to be done. I got a note from one of my English students on Sunday after the choir concert, which was, by the way, MAGNIFICENT... Cata wrote that when she came to English classes she had a hole in her heart and it was very sad. Now she is happy and her heart is whole because she met the Saviour through her funny, joyful teacher! I'm so thankful that God is faithful and is able to use me and work through me to encourage others!

Pray for Laura and Jorge. They returned from their honeymoon to find that Jorge had been released from his job. Pray for a new job and God's peace for them as they start their life together.

I love you and ask the Lord to give you a blessed Christmas!

The MK's

We have six BEAUTIFUL MK's (missionary kids) on our field and I couldn't resist sharing this picture with you...it was a challange to get them all smiling and looking in the same direction but I think we did pretty well! (from Left to Right - Oscar, Madeline, Ethan, Joshua, Tabitha and Amelia.) Merry Christmas everyone!

Wedding bells

Laura and Jorge's wedding came off without a hitch and it was a beautiful wedding. Rather than say more - I'll let a few pictures say a a thousand words.
The tradition is to pin money to the groom's shirt and write a message on it. Here is the happy couple just before they left on their honeymoon!

Whew!

Life seems to be going at warp speed these days. The tree is up and almost all gifts are purchased (what do you get teen-age boys??!?!?!?! for not a lot of $$$!). Tomorrow is a women's evangelistic breakfast and Robin MacKinnon and I are decorating four of the eight tables. Should be fun to see all the different things people come up with. We are expecting around 80 women a number of them non-believers.

Speaking of non-believers, there are six people who are no longer in that category! During the final English class, a clear presentation of the Gospel was made and six of my students accepted the Lord. My heart is glad.

We had an adventure in the van on Monday. Carol Agnew and I were coming home from grocery shopping when we heard a sound and the wheel pulled hard to the left! The mechanics called this morning and it was the dololly that is by the wheel! (I couldn't understand the word) They were able to fix it for around $530 but it was quite a scare. Now pray with me that the Lord will provide the funds in my support account to pay for it!

Stay tuned on Monday for pictures of Laura and Jorge's church wedding. I was at a wedding last weekend. May people get married in December because they get a year end bonus so they can afford to get married then. This is a picture of Aldo and Vanessa. Aldo plays the drums in the praise team.

Hope your day is great! Thanks for your prayers!

Much to be thankful for!

What a whirlwind week this has been! We celebrated Thanksgiving here at the house last Thursday - with eight adults and six kids. I did the turkey and green bean casserole ad everyone else brought something to share. I also made pumpkin pies from scratch as in I cut the pumpkin
and boiled it and made puree cuz you can't get canned pumpkin here.

Today Laura and Jorge got married in a civil ceremony. I told them it was good to know they were married civily! The church ceremony is a formality and is not recognized by the Mexican government so couples have to be married by a judge first. Their church wedding is Saturday the 13th. I told Jorge there was still time to run this morning! He just grinned and gazed at Laura! The poor man is in love! Pray for the last details still to come together in the next days.

Here I am with the happy couple! Stay tuned for the church wedding pics!

I'm back!

Life has been busy, if not a bit crazy. I went to the U.S. for 12 days to touch base with friends and supporters and had a grand time. It was a whirlwind but was well worth it.

Upon my return I hit the ground running and went practically from the airport to choir practice. That Friday I went to the airport in Toluca to pick up a group of people coming to the Marriage Encounter. The van decided that it didn't want to keep going and stopped on the way home. In God's providence, it stopped right in front of a mechanic's shop! Another blessing was several of the gentlemen in the car knew what was happening and what to do, much more than I know which isn't much. We arrived back in plenty of time for the retreat and today the car came back from the mechanic's and was only $180 to get fixed.

In the meantime, I have been teaching English and meeting with our ECC teams. What a joy it is to see the enthusiasm these people have to share what Christ has done in their lives with others.

A Noble Passing

I just received word from my Aunt Beth that her sister my Aunt Royetta passed away this morning. Aunt Royetta was an amazing woman and those who knew both of us said we were two peas in a pod. She will be missed greatly but I know where she is and know that now she is not suffering. Pray for my Aunt Beth and cousin Russell as they mourn her passing.

Monday, Monday

Well, Monday is blog day. I am going to try to update every Monday. There isn't anything earth shattering to report but here goes.

First let me introduce you to our Mexican family. There is Mama Margarita, Papa Ernesto, Velina (married to Israel mother to Ian and Pam) Lucia, Aida and Rebeca (engaged to Alan). We meet when we were all attending the Izcalli church about 11 years ago and they have adopted both Robin and me and are a big part of our lives here in Mexico. This last week Aida spent some time in the hospital with pneumonia. She's back at home and feeling better but needs prayer for a full recovery. (Aida is in the middle)

Had a great time with Laura on Saturday. She is getting married in December and we had some coffee (mine was decalf) and talked about the wedding, work and ministry. Pray for her and Jorge as they plan for their life together.

Not much else exciting happened. But keep checking as we never know when God is going to surprise us with something exciting!

Mi Casa es Su Casa

You have all heard the saying "mi casa es su casa" (my house is your house) well it is used widely here in Mexico but it's never got me in trouble before. My only excuse is that the five shots of Novocaine affected my brain.

Well yesterday I baked a cake, it was Ian's 2nd birthday, and lasagna (Ian's dad Israel's favorite) and set off to our Mexican families house "mi casa" for the birthday party. Only one problem, the family all of them including the birthday boy came to my house for the party! We all waited almost 2 hours in front of each other's house wondering what happened to one another. Of all the nights for my cell phone to die!

We finally connected and figured out what happened. Most of the arrangements were made through Luci and we both said "en tu casa" both thinking your house not my house. There was much hugging and laughing when we finally connected. We all decided that we would say your house on Halcones (my house) or on Veliocino (Mama and Papa's house)!

Needless to say communication is very important and I'm still working on the nuances of Spanish! If it all sounds confusing, believe me it was!

This is a picture of Ian with Tia Margaret a couple of months ago...stay tuned for a more recent one!

This Week's Happenings

The highlight of my week was meeting with three ECC (Every Community for Christ) teams and hearing their triumphs and sorrrows. Pray especially for the Coacalco team for unity and communication. My role in meeting with these teams is to encourage them and to gather prayer requests to put on the OMS prayer blog. You can check it out at: http://blogs.omsinternational.org/mexico

I also mentor the young women on those teams. Pray for Laura who is busy planning her December 13th wedding; for Avril who is going on vacation this week for a much needed rest; for Soccoro who is studying to take the equivelant of the GED, she is struggling with the math portion! and I can relate to that; for Diana who's sister is running from the Lord; and for Carmen as she strives to grow more like Jesus.

Personally, my jaw is recouperating from a root canal on Friday. I have to say that experience was as pleasant as a root canal can be. The dentist was so kind and patient. The tooth doesn't hurt any more but my jaw is not happy!

I am going to try to update this blog every Sunday evening or Monday morning. Look forward to your comments and to hearing from you.

Have a great week!

Welcome!

Well, I'm trying to blog again to see if I can stay in better touch with friends and family. Here I will share what I'm up to and how I spend my time here in Mexico. So here we go - of on an adventure together.

Margarita