Around the house.

 

 

~A poinsettia  gifted in August.

~11 eggs in a white cloth box. You can buy in a carton of 30, half a carton of 15, or individually.  I buy 10 individuals at a time. Buying a dozen would seem like a natural thing to do, but I never have. Wonder why?

~Part of today’s lunch. Leftover salsa, ground sausage, tortillas and crushed tostados, to be accompanied by black beans, scrambled eggs, and Guava water, for warm simple breakfast tacos. 

~The table’s current center piece. 

~The soft glow of a candle.

~A basket cradling precious books. Including a The Dairy of Anne Frank in Spanish. {My current language challenge.} And at not a bad price, being a 40 peso find. 

~Our {now} empty afghan filled guest bed.   Won’t you come? 

Amigo

The day is warm.   The afternoon still young.  I walk down the street, heading to buy our daily rations of tortilla.

“Mi amigo?!”   I look from side to side and finally down to see the face of a boy, no more than four years old.  His was the voice that had interrupted my thoughts.

“Mi amigo?!!?”  He asks, no demands again.  He obviously wanted some piece of information and thought I had it.   Had he lost something?  And did I even know this kid?  I had no idea. 

“No se, tu amigo…?”  I begin.  The light bulb comes on.   Of course I know this kid!  I saw him on the street corner near my house a few nights ago.  Rafa had talked to him.

“Oh! Mi esposo, Rafa?!”  I ask.   He gives me a look of an obvious “DUH, lady!”  I explain that Rafa is at work.  The child looks at me, shrugs his shoulders and scampers away.  

I hurry along my way as well, smiling and thanking the Lord that the man children know as amigo, I know as husband. 

Really good.

Two weeks ago our modem was struck by lightning, therefore our internet was down for about a week. 

Last week we had Vacation Bible School, my husband stepped on a nail and was home for a few days, so the world wide web was on of the last things on my mind. 

Early this week we visited friends a few hours away, and brought some back to stay with us for the week, thus making trips to my suegra’s house less frequent.  For internet use, at least.  

It has been weeks since I have talked with some members of my family and friends that I normally keep up with.  My blog has seen a couple of posts here and there, but the pictures on my computer tell me I have a lot of posts left unwritten.  Skype dates with girlfriends have been less frequent, and I have a list of people that I need to email.  

But in these past few weeks I have been in more homes here, had face-to-face and heart-to-heart talks, the young kids from church are no longer shy or scared around me, but will come sit on my lap, run to me for a hug, or hold my hand while walking down the street. (It took VBS for them to realize that the white girl is a person too :) I have held babies of all sizes, including just a couple of days old.  We have visited old friends and made new dear ones.   More people have come in and out of our front door than the first three months combined that we were here. 

I love being busy, jumping happily form one activity to the next.  And being a stay-at-home wife in a place where you hardly know anyone is anything *but* busy.  Friends from the States would assure me that things would pick up without me even realizing it, and I would be longing for a day of nothing again.  I was not quite so sure….

It was is a struggle.  I tell God, “I want to do great things for you!”  He responds, “Be faithful in the little things.”   “But am I not better than that?  Don’t you want to use me for more than little things?!”   He gently reminds me, “No.  I am the one who did and does great things in you.  I made the world out of nothing.  I take nothing and make them something.  Be faithful in the seemingly nothingness.”    

He has put me here.  Here and now.  He is the One who allows what comes into my day.   He has put me here to build a family, know Him, love my neighbor,  create a community, make new friends, and live for Him.

So if you live far away, love me, and do not see much internet activity, please do not worry.  I am not going on a internet fast, I still love skype dates,  and blogging is something I enjoy.  Do not think that something is the matter.  On the contrary, things are good.  Really good. 

11 de Agosto

¡Feliz Cumpleaños guapo!

Doy gracias al nuestro Señor por tu vida. Gracias por ser mi amado. ¡Te amo!

Una Foto

{Photography credit goes to Rafa.}

Picking Fruit.

A few days ago I went to pick fruit from at a neighbors.  At the end of an hour or so there, the basket was full of peaches, a few apples and a couple of pears.   The fruit was pretty ugly on the outside, but when pealed, cut up, and the blemishes are removed, I could almost imagine myself savoring a Georgia peach.   Almost.    It was the end of the season for the peaches, and pretty soon the pears will be ripe.  I was invited back and told to take all I want from the trees that are already handing with what promise to be wonderful juicy pears.   It is eagerly anticipated….

Fresh Blankets

 

 

After 2 hours of hiking, it is semi-dark and we are just barley beginning to see the lights of Mixtla, our destination for the evening.   It is January 2010 and I and six others have been staying with the people of the mountains in there homes for over two weeks.  Our base home is the house of a single mother and her four sons.  The oldest son, age 16, is married, and him and his 15-year-old wife and their 2-year-old son live with his mom too.  The time we have spent there, we have stayed up into the long hours of the night chatting, laughing, and making tortillas.  The family has electricity, but all the cooking is done over a wood fire, and running water is unheard of.   Because of this and the cold, most of us have only bathed once in the week and a half that we have been there.  Three days ago we hiked up to another village, Tlaxticuapa to plant gardens, apply medicine to children with a skin disease,  and just be with our brothers and sisters in Christ there.  

Now it is three days later and we are returning back to Mixtla for another few days there until our two weeks there will be up.   We return late, but are greeted warmly by the entire family, and a hot meal of tortillas and black beans are waiting.   We eat quickly, say   goodnight, and us girls pass into the room were the four us shared a bed, changed without saying much, then climbed into bed, ready for a night’s rest. I pull the blankets up tight and smell something wonderful.   Cleanness.  In the little time we had been gone, the 15-year-old mother took the time to hand wash blankets in the cold so that we, dirty unbathed, sweat smelling girls, could have clean bedding the few more days we were going to be there. 

I washed blankets this past week, and in doing so, I thought of her.   I began to have a new appreciation for her and what she humbly did that week a year and a half ago that spoke volumes to my heart.   The time that we were there we saw new people come to Christ, children receive medicine they so desperately needed, vegetable gardens to give fresh produce to a people who hardly ever have it, and hearts encouraged.   We were told to take pictures, write reports, and make presentations about what we had done those two weeks.  But this past week as I thought and prayed for my friend, I found myself asking God to change my heart to be like hers.  To make me faithful with what I have been given, to welcome people into my home, and to love others and Him the way she does.  And I ask myself, when God watched that week the going-ons of small village in the mountains of Mexico, who delighted His heart? 

{A note on the pictures from this post:  Some are from the 3-years Rafa worked in the mountains, as he spent a lot of time in the villages mentioned above as well.  Some are from the few months I went there every week, and some are from when I went back for a visit this past May when the group from Augusta was there.  All of them were taken in the areas mentioned in above post, with the exception of the last one, which is from today here at home.}