Our Monday with Nathan and Myranda

Nathan spent some time on Monday tearing out the old sink compartment in Marc's office and replacing it with this nice sink/countertop section. It looks SO much better and is a great improvement to the office area.

In the afternoon, we went up to El Mirador and drove up the mountain to view the city. Fun times!

Monday evening, Myranda helped Marc and I teach the English class. The students loved having her there to practice their English with - and it was so good for them because they couldn't use their "Spanish crutch." :-)

Old Friends

One of the really neat things that has happened while Nathan and Myranda have been here is that Nathan got to see 2 ladies that he and his family knew from being missionaries here in Mexico when Nathan was young.

Here he is talking with Chelo and her husband, Lupe. Chelo is a long time friend of the Weaver Family. Nathan does well speaking Spanish even after all these years.

The other lady that Nathan got to see is Norma. She hadn't even realized he was in the service until she happened to see Treyton, our 6 year old nephew. She said to herself, "That's Nathan!" She was so excited to see and talk to Nathan and Myranda and kids after church.

Twins, Twins and yes, more Twins!

This morning in the service in Saltillo, there were 3 sets of twins present - 2 of them were in my Sunday School class! :-) By the way, there were 14 of us in my SS class this morning - I think that's a record. It was great, but we were crammed in there and the temperature kept rising the whole hour and 15 minutes. So fun to have my nephews and neice, Treyton, Jackson and Jada in my class today!

The twins are as follows: (in order)

First set - Pastor Dolores and Sylvia's daughters, Christy and Kenya. They are turning 6 on Saturday.

Second set - Kevin and Dariela - 7 years old. Their family faithfully attends the Saltillo church.

Third set - Jada and Jackson - 5 years old.

So much fun to be with my beautiful youngest sister Myranda and her family.

Happy July 4th

I have missed being able to celebrate this 4th of July in my own country, but we've had a great day anyway! The best part of this July 4th: my sister Myranda, husband Nathan and kids have arrived to spend almost a week with us. We're so excited!

Enjoying some ice cream on the patio with cousins Treyton, Jada and Jackson....

(Jordan's not in these pictures of the kids because he went on a youth outing with the Saltillo youth tonight.)

Our Fun Monday of Sightseeing and Shopping

This team worked incredibly hard! We crammed so many projects into the 7 days they were here and the Lord helped us get so much accomplished. On Monday we decided to go market shopping, eat tacos, and see the sights in Saltillo.

Spices in the market

Beautiful handpainted pottery

The team eating those great tacos al pastor

All of us on the Plaza in front of the Cathedral

Inside the Governor's Mansion downtown

I love this architecture and color of this downtown building

After we finished downtown, we drove up the mountain to see all of Saltillo in the valley below. Beautiful!

After Marc, Brennan and I taught English class, we all went to the home of Jose and Ana Correa for awesome burritos. We had so much fun!

Playing Jenga after eating

As we were leaving late Monday night to all go our separate ways and leave very early Tuesday morning, the Team surprised me by a great thank you gift - beautiful roses and lilies, a set of candles and a very meaningful card that the Team all signed. Thank you so much to all of you! I had a wonderful time hostessing you all - you were so easy to "take care of"! Come back soon!

A little better shot of the flowers.

We're so thankful to God for this Team and each individual who sacrificed their time and money to come and be a blessing to our family and Bible Methodist Missions in Mexico. May God reward each of you - we love you!

Sunday with the Team

Sunday was a really great day at our BM church in Saltillo. The Team was involved in ministry all day. Bro. Ed Durham taught the Adult Sunday School class with Bro. Craig McLaughlin translating into Spanish.

Saltillo Pastor and Conference President Dolores Hernandez

We had a great "pitch in" Mexican dinner in the comedor after morning service. Here's Brennan helping himself to some of it. He loves Mexican food and they love it that he loves it! :-) By the way, I think we've decided that we're not going to let Brennan leave in a few days. Just feels like he's one of us now...at least we have to have a signed contract that he's coming back before he can get on that plane. :-)

Not sure what Sylvia and I were talking about, but it must have been funny.

The whole team sang a sang in Spanish and English in the evening service: "Jesus, We just Want to Thank You/ Cristo, Queremos Dar Gracias". It was so beautiful!

Playing and singing with the Team

Bro. Craig preached a wonderful message in the evening service.

After the evening service, Kristin Foster (Chris Lambeth translating) taught a music class.

She taught basics like steady beat, counting beats in a measure, how to learn a new song (which we did in the class), then took time for their questions and song suggestions at the end of class. She did a great job and everyone enjoyed learning more about music.

Marc singing the new song in Spanish to demonstrate.

Here they are learning to conduct a song in 3/4 or 4/4 time.

As I said, it was a full day of ministry but very rewarding, too!

The San Rafael Medical Clinic - Day 5

Our first Bible Methodist Medical Clinic effort at our church in the village of San Rafael was a wonderful success! We didn't have quite the turnout of people that we had prepared for, but it was an amazing day nonetheless. And I don't think our nurse, Jackie Bishop, could have possibly worked any harder. She was wonderful!

8 of us were involved in this ministry while the rest of the team went on to a mountain village in Galeana to make some repairs on a small BM chapel there.

The 8 of us were: Jackie Bishop, RN, Bradley Bishop, Kristin Foster, Arlette Makcen, Alicia McIntyre, Chris Lambeth, Jordan and I. Lots of people were treated that day and great contacts were made as the village people came to the church for medical checkups and assistance. The sanctuary and SS rooms were transformed into a clinic and we had the assistance of Pastor Alejandro and his church people with crowd control, set up, etc.

Marc praying with the Team in the San Rafael church before they left for Galeana

Bradley Bishop checking blood pressures

Me, checking blood sugar levels. Jordan's not in the picture, but he was my right hand man all day, keeping me stocked with lancets, alcohol swabs, test strips, gloves. Thanks, Jordan!

Jackie Bishop talking with a patient through Chris Lambeth, translator

Some of the people waiting to see the nurse

Kristin Foster weighing and measuring patients

Alicia McIntyre taking temperatures

Jackie, examing a precious little Mexican baby

I did not get a good picture of Arlette in action, but she served as receptionist, greeting all the people in Spanish, signing them in, helping weigh and measure them and also translating some for Jackie. Hers was the first smiling face people saw when they entered the clinic and it made such a difference that she was able to communicate with them in their own language. :-)

The pastor and church people fed us a delicious meal after the clinic

Pastor Alejandro wanted to thank everyone for their hard work and ministry that day. Everyone gathered on the church porch and Marc translated into Spanish Pastor Alejandro's heartfelt words of gratitude. When he finished, Bro. Ed Durham prayed a prayer of blessing over our day's efforts, the pastor and church, and the community of San Rafael. It was a very special time.

We are so grateful to each of you who donated medical supplies, medicine, and money to this Medical Clinic. God helped us minister in San Rafael and He used you to help make it possible. Thanks SO much to Jackie, our RN, for her hours of work behind the scenes, organizing, gathering supplies and equipment and for working harder than anybody on Saturday. We love you, Jackie - may God reward you for your efforts here in Mexico.

Thanks also to Bro. Ed Durham, state side Team Coordinator, for his help in gathering medical supplies.

The supplies and medical packets left over will be stored here in Mexico for our next Clinic effort, hopefully in just a few months. The packets each person received contained vitamins, bandaids, Tylenol, a toothbrush, toothpaste and a Gospel tract in Spanish.

Thank you again to everyone!

Fun on Friday Night

After several days of hard work, we all took a break Friday night. We went to eat at Las Brazas, made a Starbucks stop :-), then headed up to El Mirador - The Overlook - to see Saltillo at night. It's beautiful.

Santa Apolonia Project - Days 3 & 4

On Thursday and Friday, the men of the team (and Logan) went to the small town of Santa Apolonia about an hour and a half from the US border to remodel our Bible Methodist church there, in great need of repairs. Here's a few pictures for you.

Ripping off the old siding

Logan loves to work...he'd rather work than play. :-)

Starting to put on the new siding

Taking a mid-day break in the unreal heat!

A "new" church - it looks great!

Thanks to this awesome team of hard-working guys! And thanks to those of you who donated money for this project - we appreciate it so much.