Fast update

Life:
Steve has been asked to take a 14 hour busride with Isaac, (an Engage student) to Laredo Texas tomorrow night. They are headed up there to help Steve Shoop (director of Engage) bring a newer van across the border with sound equipment and a puppet stage. So, Steve will be in the States for 3 or 4 hours - just long enough to mail another examen he took to continue becoming ordained.

Liz and the kids are getting ready to take a short trip to Nuevo Vallarta when Steve gets back. We´ll be staying right on the beach with everything paid for for three days and two nights. What a blessing to be able to go do something so exotic and have it cost next to nothing because we´re already down here in Mexico.

Pictures will follow (we know they are fun to look at!)

So Mom and Dad were here this last week and we had a great time with them. Highlights from their time here: spending time with us of course, the feeding program that Engage ministries does every week in a poor area, playing five crowns every night, the Indians games, great shopping, and of course the food!!! The weather was perfect for them. It was a holiday on Friday so schools were closed and they got to experience a crazy festival. And Cole and Lydia soaked up every moment. Starbucks got to know my Dad pretty well while he finished up some work from home over a few mornings. The cockroaches even stayed away for the most part to make them feel more at home. Overall, it was a great half-way point to our time down here (which is going by so fast!).

The super good food at a restaurant we took them too. The bowls are made from lava rock and were so hot that the sauce boil the whole time. Yum.

Mom seriously couldn't get enough of the great food here. We didn't mind the sacrifice of eating out.

Poppy's girl

Mimi loved the cuddle time she got with the kids.

Drinking coconut milk at the crazy huge festival.

King Cole dressed up for Columbus day at preschool.

Mom and Dad fell in love with the kids at the feeding program. You wouldn't have guessed there was a language barrier between them!

Other thoughts... We are feeling good about the core group of about 5-6 students that is forming and their faithfulness to the group and with Angela's leadership. Jesus is being faithful.

checking in

It's been a while!! It gets hard cuz we don't have internet at home and the internet at CUCEA (campus) is funky and we can't update blogs from there. So we have to do it from the engage house and the last few times we've been there, we got caught up in other important things like Steve's fantasy football.

We're having a great time. My folks are here and my mom has insisted on eating out every meal since she's fallen in love with authentic Mexican food. Luckily for my dad, all six of us can eat at a taco stand on the side of the road for about $5. After this trip it will be hard for them to go back to Taco Bell.

I'll post some pics when I have more time.

Other thoughts: Steve is loving the two guys that he's been pouring a lot into. He's really going to miss them. They are great guys and soak up everything that Steve is pouring into them. We're very excited about them. Their names are Adrian and Isai.

More later!

I thought I should get some more pictures up here so that you didn't all think we were in the pits of despair. Actually, we are doing well. It is through trials that we are made stronger and we realize how great the Lord really is. So we are just praising Him for being so good to us.

Our kids LOVE public transportation. Here we are on the train going into the Centro.

Not everything is this colorful but it's definitely different than our white houses in the States. There is actually every color of the rainbow on this block!

This is the most touristy we've felt, taking a picture of a guy at work in front of the bank. These guys are everywhere! In front of stores, banks, some parks. I don't know if I should feel safer or not!

Other fun news: Cole and Lydia run into Kinder now and love it. I've got an addiction to Chilaquiles (which is a spicy breakfast food). Steve gets to go to a Chivas game tomorrow night with some students (a futbol game). And my mom (and possible my dad if we can talk him into it) is coming in just over a week!! If you know anything about my family, we just can't stay away from each other.

Steve has also been working hard on his ordination classes. And I'm reading an amazing book that is rocking my world and walk with the Lord. It's A.W. Tozer's The Pursuit of God. I read it ten years ago and just picked it up again. I'm soaking up every bit of it. It's like he's reading my heart. Everything he says is exactly what's going on with me and I love it. It is also a very hard book to read because I don't want to continue on until I "get it" or have a breakthrough. But I was stuck at chapter 3 for so long that I decided to just keep reading and I'll read through it a few times!