Five girls and a donkey named "Phil"

I currently live in a house with five lovely teenage girls. I never expected to love them this much :) The Lord has placed such a burden on my heart to encourage, mentor, and intercede for these girls in prayer.

Meet Karla: She is 15 years old and her favorite color is yellow. She is also a talented artist and enjoys drawing and painting. She also can sew very well. She likes to sing and plays the piano and guitar. She likes to read in her spare time. She is also Tanya's sister. :)

Meet Tanya: She is 13 years old and her favorite color is blue. She is in the seventh grade :) She has a beautiful smile and she laughs all the time. I love when she tells jokes! Although, she is probably the most timid of the girls :) She also loves to read. Her favorite author is Karen Kingsbury.

Meet Lupita: She is 15 years old. She likes to play baseball and water the plants :) . She also likes to read. She is super friendly and has been very welcoming to the new students that we have recently gained at school. Her favorite color is blue.

Meet Yaneli: Yaneli is 12 years old. She is one of my students in the primaria. She is in 6th grade:) Her favorite teacher is Miss Frank :) Her favorite color is pink. Her mom's name is Reina which means queen in spanish. She has the most adorable freckles I have ever seen! She shares a room with Tanya and she loves to hang out with her roommate. She loves to play volleyball and watch High School Musical. Her best friend is Lupita. Her favorite foods are hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, and she has recently discovered a love for meatloaf. Her favorite animals are dolphins, dogs, and cats. She is also a very talented dancer and singer :) She is currently taking piano lessons from Kali. :)

Meet Jaqueline: Jaqui is my roommate. :) She is 15 years old and the eldest of the girls. She is probably the sweetest girl I know. She is sooo special! :) She is intelligent, talented, and cares deeply about others. She likes to read and have late night chats with Sarah :) She is really good at playing basketball and soccer and likes to work out. Her favorite colors are blue and green. She enjoys worshiping the Lord through music. Her teachers are Todd, Geo, and Daniela (her older sister). She really likes learning new things at school. Her favorite movies are "A Walk To Remember" and "Pride and Prejudice." In the future, she would like to return to CVE and help children and teens that are stuggling with the same issues that she has struggled through by showing them the love of Jesus Christ.

Also...we have a donkey!!! Our neighbor Isaac (also one of my students) decided the other day that he wanted to ride our poor donkey. Phil was less than pleased :) Isaac, however, was delighted! I heard him yelling, as Phil was charging through our front yard, that he didn't know how to stop! Fortunately, it all ended well! haha :)

Viva Mexico!

Yesterday we celebrated Mexico's independence day! We ate traditional Mexican food and the students performed dances and read poetry. At midnight, we all went into town and listened to the "Grito." Basically, the mayor of each town in Mexico leads the community in shouting "Viva Mexico! Viva Mexico!" It was a pretty cool experiance! I, of course, have no pictures of this because I completely forgot my camera! My apologies! :) But I do have some pictures of the festivities at school!

Chutzpah!

Sometimes, I just sit and wonder at the awesome power of God. It is overwhelming to think about actually. I knew that in coming here to Magdalena I would forever be changed. The Lord never ceases to amaze me with His methods of molding and shaping my heart. I would never have guessed that the Lord would bring me to this dry and thirsty place to show me how much that He loves me.

I was spending some time a few days ago just sitting in the presence of God and a thought occurred to me. I had been reading a book called Toward a Deeper Walk by Marcus Warner. In his book, Warner touches on the concept of "seeking the Lord." I don't know about you, but the idea of seeking the Lord has always been something kind of difficult to grasp. I have always very adamantly believed that I needed to seek the Lord but had no idea what that actually meant and how exactly I was supposed to put that into practice as a believer. Anyway, Warner very simply defined seeking as "asking the Lord questions."

Since discovering this, I have begun to seriously restructure the way that I pray. The results have been incredible! It had never occured to me that God actually wants to answer our prayers! He's not going to ignore us. He will always speak if we are willing to be in tune with the Spirit and wait on His perfect timing.

A few days ago, was reading the story in Genesis 32 when Jacob wrestles the angel and refuses to give up until the angel blesses him. I was reminded of a word that I just recently learned, "Chutzpah." I think it's Yiddish. :) It basically means don't let up, press on, keep fighting! I have never in my life felt like I needed more Chutzpah than right now! For those of you who don't know, I am a missionary serving at an orphanage in Mexico. We deal with a lot of deeply hurting children. Satan, unfortunately, still has an unrelenting grip on some of their lives and he is desperate to keep his legal right to keep them in chains of darkness. As believers in Christ Jesus, our battle is fierce and it is easy to become discouraged. But I have also realized that as Children of God we are seated in the heavenly places with our Lord and by His strength (and His strength alone) evil doesn't stand a chance.

So, I suppose that my point is that "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" Ephesians 6:12 "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your bretheren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever!" 1Peter 5: 8-11

School! :)

Sorry for not being very diligent in my blogging lately! School has started and things have been much busier for me here. I am so thankful to have the opportunity to teach at our school! I already love my students dearly! However,I think that the more I teach the more that I realize I have no idea what I'm doing! But God will always glorify His name in our weakness! And that's the point isn't it?
On the first day of school, we all participated in something called the "Escolta." Basically, all of the students march around with the Mexican flag and then we sing the Mexican national anthem. It's a very big deal here. I can't imagine what my students thought of their new teacher who had no idea what was going on! :) That was certianly a memorable experiance! I am currently attempting to learn the words to the national anthem. :)

My first week was filled with all sorts of memorable experiances actually. On the second day of school, I ingested some sort of bacteria that prompted my body to react by violently puking for about 12 hours. It's a good thing that no one here has heard of sub plans! I don't think I could have written any if I had tried! :) Here are some pictures of my new classroom :)

I also bought a new bedspread and we painted one of the walls in our room pink :)

Trip to Hermosillo! :)

I was blessed to be able to take a day trip with two of our lovely teachers here at CVE. We went to the state capital of Sonora, Hermosillo. Hermosillo is about two hours away from Magdalena. We went to look for teaching materials and things for our classrooms. It was so good just to spend some time with my sisters in Christ. I think that one of the profound things that God has been teaching me is the value of surrounding myself with people who are also dedicated to a deeper walk with Christ. What a blessing to have beautiful hearts like these to surround myself with! :)

Enjoying a few Gorditas :) I think that saying that they were spicy would be an understatement...:)

The purpose of our trip was to look for teaching materials. It was quite a chore to look through this disaster! The books weren't organized at all! Someone just shoved all of the teaching materials into one shelf!

We thought that there would be a bookstore here :( They apparently had recently relocated.... :)

Geo and Carissa enjoying their "Sandys." This was probably the most hilarious part of our trip! The poor person who accidently translated that word wrong! :) He was so close... :)

We really didn't know where we were going... hahah :)

The restraunt. :)

These are three different enchuladas. The brown one is filled with mole. Mole is made with chocolate... kind of weird. :)

Geo and I at Las Chulas.

Carissa and I at "Las Chulas." I am so thankful for Carissa's mentorship. She has so much wisdom! :)

This is Heidi and I during VBS. We were responsible for registering the 12-15 year old boys. They were hilarious :)

P is for pancakes

I'm here! Praise God for His faithfulness and His nearness. I think that the farther I get from my earthly "home" the more that I realize that this is not my home. We are all in a far country. But one day, we will be reunited with our heavenly father in our "forever" home. Here are some pictures of my new "temporary" home :)

My bed :) Praise God for that fan!

This is our desk that we share :) This is probably where all of my lesson planning will take place :)

This is my beautiful roommate Jaqui :)

I also had the opportunity to teach one of the summer school classes today. And then I happened to stumble upon the book "Si le das un panqueque a una cerdita" (If you give a pig a pancake"). So we made the letter P out of pancakes! They turned out really cute:)

They were absolutely adorable!

We all took turns stirring the batter :)

A Nobody named Ordinary

I have never blogged before so this is just another new and exciting adventure to add to the growing list of unknowns in my life. I actually considered not blogging. However, when I thought about it, God is doing so many incredible things in my life currently that it would be selfish of me not to share.
I am leaving tomorrow morning to pursue a big dream of mine. I have been given the opportunity to live and teach at an orphanage in Magdalena, Mexico! I have never been so excited and terrified at the same time! I guess the feeling is comparable to the way a little kid feels when they are about to jump off the high dive for the first time. I suppose I would call it "panicked excitement." :)

I was recently reading a book called The Dream Giver by Bruce Wilkinson. I thought that it was a really accurate portrayal of the different things that I have been feeling and experiencing as God has presented my Big Dream to me :) Here is how it begins : "Not long ago and not far away, a Nobody named Ordinary lived in the Land of Familiar..." That is how we all begin isn't it? But if we allow God to take us out of our comfort zones and defeat the giant fears in our life, our Maker will use our big dreams for his glory! What a great God we serve!

Somehow, I was able to fit in all of my aprons and flower pens! :)

This is basically everything that I own stuffed into three suitcases! And, being a teacher, I have a strict "No post-it-note left behind" policy. :)