Community Center

Please check out noothernameministries.blogspot.com to catch up on what's happening at our Community Outreach Center. It's exciting!

Number the Stars

Need a good book? This one is for kids, but speaks loudly to adults too! Number the Stars by Lois Lowry is a fictionalized account of what took place in Denmark during World War II when the Danish people helped almost seven thousand Jews escape the Nazis. While the family involved in the story is fictionalized, it contains much truth of what really happened. A fascinating story - get it and read it to your kids!

Te de Amistad - Friendship Tea

Preparing for our Friendship Tea and Natividad, Rosaura and Mary: Chicken and mole (moh-lay) sandwiches, watermelon cups and delicious cookies, all of which we served after the fun crafts.

Kaylyn Buhler brought her guitar to lead us in music. Tania (left) joined her with her guitar and Rosy joined with her voice. Great job, girls!

Sharla Buhler gave a beautiful talk titled The Purposes of God for Our Friendships. God spoke to all of us - thank you, Sharla for your willingness to share with us!

Handwork is so much fun! Here you see Edith, Kristin and Mary gluing their washcloth bunnies.

Edith glues her beautiful CD disk that she has covered with a rose picture, while Mary looks on and awaits her turn.

It was a delightful tea! We didn't drink any tea - it was much too hot! About 4 "invitadas" came - invited friends - and we trust they went away with the message of the Gospel and the message of how we Christians CAN have fun and enjoy each other!

Ciruelas

Ciruelas are in season! This morning as we walked into the market, that's the first thing I saw! And almost the first thing I bought! So, what are "ciruelas"? Literally they're plums, but they're not like any plum you've met in the U.S.! Small, yellow, sometimes with green or red streaks, almost all seed, and very sweet and delicious! Some would disagree with me - their loss!

You first squeeze it gently till all the fruit under the skin feels juicy. Then you pop it in your mouth and suck! Careful, because it squirts all over if you open your mouth while sucking it! I don't eat the skin, just suck the pit, which is almost the size of the entire fruit, until it's clean! Very delicious!

Susanna

Remember when Bethie and I dressed up as Susanna Wesley and "friend" and gave our little talk (actually, it was a "read") about raising children for the Lord?

Well, I just finished reading Susanna Wesley, Servant of God, a book written especially for young people (that's me!), and it was an excellent review of her life. She had a hard life! 19 children, at least six of them died either at birth or soon after, at least three fires that destroyed their home and almost destroyed one of her children, a husband who was gone so much, both of them very stubborn and hard-headed, but an incredibly intelligent woman who taught her children the truths of God. But, even at that, some of her children turned their backs on God. So sad! But remember the names Charles Wesley and John Wesley? Of course! Two of her boys! Both wrote many hymns and preached the Word of God. I recommend this book for all you "young readers" out there! It's a page turner!

Some more TAQUIZA snapshots

I think Rosy's face is saying, "This is delicious!" After finishing, she groaned, "I think I ate too much!" Most of us could have said the same!

Victor and Susie - there's Cameron on the right.

Yolanda and Gaby, our hostess.

Yolanda's mom, Victor hijo and Luisito (he's older than he looks!).

Paul and Grace enjoying the "raspados" that Victor treated us to. He bought a big block of ice, then scraped the ice into cups (you know, like an Icee), the added flavors. His offerings of flavors were chamoy (a fruit with chile - Alan said it tasted like V-8 juice with chile!), rum, tamarind and guayaba. I tried the guayaba and it was luscious.

Mother's Day Taquiza

Yesterday a bunch of us got together at Francisco and Gaby's house for a TAQUIZA (hint: comes from word "TACO"). But first someone has got to hold Gaby's sleeping baby.

And NO, the one holding isn't wishing for another one!



Pico de gallo to go with the tacos: tomatoes, chiles, onions, avocado - it was delicious!

Fried pig skins are a must. At the right you can see the Cowboy Beans, which were yummy!

Prepare the meat for grilling. Lemon and garlic salt over each piece. Unlike our "gringo" counterparts, we here in Mexico use very thin meat, grill, stick in a tortilla, a little salsa or pico de gallo, maybe some grilled nopal (you can see it here in the dish waiting to be grilled) and EAT!

And Adrian, Julio and Francisco get to work grilling! What fun they had - or at least it appeared that way! And quite a few of those pieces of meat they grilled never got onto the plates! Don't know what happened to them!

Cinco de Mayo

What it is NOT: The Mexican Independence Day! No, no, no.

We celebrate Independence Day on September 16th with parties, costumes, contests, games and of course LOTS OF FOOD! We normally celebrate on evening of the 15th, since the "Shout for Independence" occurred on midnight of that day. So, we call it the "quince" (fifteen) rather than the "sixteen".


On Cinco de Mayo there was a battle that took place in Puebla, Mexico between the Mexican army and the French. If you want to know what really took place, look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinco_de_Mayo. It'll tell you all about it!

It is celebrated in Puebla with parades and parties, but in the rest of the country (for the most part), life goes on as usual on the 5th of May.

We're not sure why the country to the north of us has "grabbed" this date as Mexico's Independence Day. Why grab Cinco de Mayo? Why not grab 16 de Septiembre?? We'll probably never know!

The new boy

When I got home from the States, there was a new boy living at our house. At least a different one.

When he talked, I looked around to see who was talking....

He left his shoes up in my apartment, and they're.....well....huge!

His clothes are getting too small too fast...

His name is............

Cameron??? Is that you???


Yep, he's growing up, his voice has changed A LOT, his shoes are huge, he's turning into an 11 year old on June 1st!

But his cousin Toria up there in PA beat him to 11. But I hope her voice hasn't changed too much and I definitely hope her shoes aren't the size of Cameron's! Check her - and her siblings - out at www.kimallem.blogspot! They're a great lookin' bunch!

And it's obvious from the photos that Cameron and Toria aren't the only ones growing up!

When I got back from my two-mohth stay in the U.S., my car looked like it had been in a dust storm in the Sahara. The picture doesn't even do justice to how it REALLY looked! And the "after" picture is dark because by the time Peanut (our dog) and I got done with the job, it was dark out. But it looked SUPER!



And Peanut looked WET. She loves to growl and bark at the water from the hose and of course gets totally soaked while doing it! She sometimes chokes and coughs too.

But never learns...