Ice cream for breakfast anyone?

We went out for breakfast with the Pontiac team and Cameron decided to do something "different!" Pancakes surrounded with M&M's and a big scoop of ice cream in the middle, accompanied by chocolate milk! He downed the ice cream pretty quick, but just a couple of the pancakes went down! It was a fun breakfast anyway!

This morning at 6 AM our PBC team is taking off for home. I got up at 6 to say good bye to Wes, Jean, David and Gideon who were staying at our house. As I came back upstairs I glanced up at one of the two skylights in my apartment, and this is what I saw! Isn't that cool?

We're very grateful to the PBC team for all the work accomplished and for the great time we had with you! You were a great team, working together so well, working hard, heartily eating our Mexican fare and just enjoying everything! May the Lord bless you and bring you back soon! Check out the noothernameministries blog for more great pictures.

Two more pictures

Pastor Brian Bill did lots of painting, can you tell? Great job! And the coke HITS THE SPOT!

Beth painting the ceiling - that's hard work! Good thing she was wearing safety goggles - there were lots of paint spatters on them!

PBC Team keep at it - Day 5

Today I got some more pictures of our hard-working team on Day 5. They're still smiling! Each day brings new, different jobs and each day also brings new skills they're acquiring! And each day brings beauty to our community outreach center! It's amazing how a coat of paint brightens a room! And I have no idea why this is underlined! Ah well!

Stephanie had a bit of paint on her face during lunch, but there was LOTS more paint on the wall - and it looked great!

A good way to get paint on your face is to do this! But the ceiling looks really good now!
Thanks, Jean! The young people won't believe their beautiful room next Sunday!
Below are the "mud slingers" - concrete and mud, that is. Carmen and Nallely (on the right) from our church joined the team this morning the help out. They're good mud-slingers! The mud went up on a wall in the junior kids' Sunday school room.

Need another good book?

Are you looking for another good book to read? 'Cause I have one for you! Especially the kiddos! It's called I WILL be a doctor! by Dorothy Clarke Wilson. It tells the life story of Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to be come an MD, the struggles she went through to get there, the suffering and hostility that she endured from the medical profession, the prejudices of society in the 1800's. But she was determined, this lady of unusual determination and compassion - and an inspiration to everyone! Look for it! Read it! You'll love it!

McManus/Hanna household

Here we are in all our glory in front of our house. We couldn't get Peanut to pose nicely for us. Ah well, there's another nice picture of her here somewhere! Our house badly needs painting - maybe soon - maybe not soon! Who knows!

PBC Team keeps at it - Day 4

Our PBC team continues working very hard. Yesterday I put on a picture of these gals "playing", but don't kid yourself, they're working HARD! Keep it up, girls!

Here's Michele, doing a dirty, no-so-fun job with a big smile on her face!

Pastor Brian Bill!

Just a shot of some of the gang. Paul Becker is on the job each day, keeping things going, shopping for needed items, and of course taking pictures! He's learning so much Spanish doing this job and will soon pass us all up in his abilities!

PBC TEAM

Pontiac Bible Church, Pontiac, IL has sent us an enthusiastic, fun, hard working team to help us at the Community Outreach Center. Here you see Jean and Wes putting in a beautiful floor for the ladies' bathroom. It's going to look so nice! In fact, it already does!

When my kids, Kris and Ken were in kindergarten, they had a festival at their school called "Jugando se Aprende" (You learn by playing) where all the kiddos played at different "work-related" things like washing clothes at a sink, washing dishes, sweeping, etc. Well, here are two of the teens from PBC "learning while playing"! That cement is squishy! Wow! But, for the most part, these gals are spending their time working hard, mixing that squishy cement, and carrying it to Luciano, who is building a wall to Cameron's Sunday School room! They're doing a great job!

I'll try to get more pictures, but if you want to see really GOOD pictures, and even a video of our hard-working team, check out the noothernameministries.blogspot.com.

Peanut

Isn't she great? She's posing, of course!
"Please, please play with me!" Peanut often brings her ball - I guess you could call it that, with holes chewed all over it - to the door, sets it down and waits for someone, anyone, to kick it into the garage. She wildly chases it, grabs it, growls at it, and brings it back to be kicked again. And just TRY to get it away from her if she doesn't want to let it go! She just growls and hangs on, swinging it back and forth and won't let go till she's good and ready!

The construction crew

Nacho, one of our church leaders, and Michele, get to work!
The construction crew from Frisco, Texas. Front, Michele and Amy. Back, Danny, Harry and Rex. What a great job they did!
Here's one of the beautiful walls of our new women's restroom at church!
Two more walls! We're excited and anxious to have the restroom finished - it may be awhile, but there is hope that it'll be soon! Just a week ago, this was an empty room and now look at it!

And even MORE pictures!

Every one of those kids in the clubs was SO CUTE! What a time our photographer, Danny Jaco had getting them to all smile beautifully- at the same time! The kids loved it of course and were thrilled to take home their picture in the frame they each designed.
Nallely, one of the Misioneros de Verano (Summer missionaries) here talks with the children who raised their hands. 35 children accepted Christ as their Savior and last Sunday two of the children brought their parents to church with them!
The games we played were silly - and so much fun! Hot potato was especially fun, as you can see!
Here are the kiddos making their frames for the picture Danny took of all of them. They're made of foamy and we saw all kinds of frames, beautiful, unusual, creative, funny - and none of them UGLY OF COURSE! The children were so pleased with them!
Our afternoon club was held in a garage/store. Our hostess, Lucy, sews and sells school uniforms. You can see them piled up and hanging in the background. The space was VERY SMALL, but we had a great time and no one minded the constant bumping into each other!

More fun pictures

Here's where Bethie hides out when teams are here! Actually, she keeps VERY BUSY preparing wonderful meals for everyone - here one of the team members, Kristin, is helping her cook up something delicious!
The whole gang. If you look closely you'll see Alan in back, Bethie (right), me (front), and Scott Yingling (back right) with the team. And you'll of course recognized Cameron and Dayton front left!
Michele Jaco gave a talk on Wellness and Exercises two times during the week. Here the ladies (and little girl!) are enjoying the information and later would "enjoy" doing some exercises with Michele!
Who says "Duck, Duck, Goose" is for kindergartners?? Here some of our young people - the one running is well over 20 - and the crazier ones on the team are enjoying a game of "Pato, Pato, Ganso!" No one broke a leg!

Lost on a Mountain in Maine

The title isn't real exciting, but the book is! 12 year old Donn Fendler told his story to Joseph B. Egan of his harrowing experience being lost on a Maine mountain called Katahdin. Later, one of the searchers describes the mountain: "Before I had reached the summit, I was fully convinced that Mt. Katahdin's ruggedness had been grossly understated and that I was climbing the toughest mountain east of the Rockies." Read about how Donn survived nine days on this mountain, surprising all but the moms around the U.S. and his parents, who never lost hope that he was still alive.

billy Sunday

I just finished the book by the above title. The last page had this paragraph: "When 1920's society rejected Jesus Christ's divinity, death, and resurrection - and the Bible in general - prominent intellectuals declared that soon such naive, barbaric superstitions would die with people like Billy Sunday. Within a generation or two, they believed, no one would accept such nonsense.
It did not happen.
Although Billy was dead, a young man still lived who had trembled at hearing Billy's hellfire-and-brimstone message at a 1924 Charlotte, North Carolina, crusade.
His name was Billy Graham."

What a neat book! It's a Heroes of the Faith book and especially for young people, so is easy - and VERY FASCINATING - reading! Read it, you'll love it!

More on Kids' Clubs

So what does a flat tire have to do with clubs?? Well, the roads are terrible right now, partly because of the rains, partly for other reasons, and I managed to hit a big pothole pretty hard one day. It ruined the tire, the team gals I was taking to club helped change the tire until a very nice young man came along and offered to help! I wish I'd gotten his name - what was I thinking?? Now I'm the proud owner of four new tires - I needed them, so am thankful I could get them right now.
Our Misioneros de Verano (Summer missionaries) did a fabulous job. Here is Benjamin teaching the Bible verse to the kiddos. He's a very enthusiastic and bubbly 16. I enjoyed getting to know him and seeing him at work! Andrea (seated in front in the pink) is 15 and equally bubbly and enthusiastic.
Here's the third Misionero de Verano, Nallely, helping the kiddos with their craft. She's 22, and is doing Misioneros de Verano for the second year. What a great job she did! How many kids in the U.S., do you think, would be willing to sit on the hard cement floor and do their crafts?? I bet not many! These kids didn't even think twice when we told them to sit on the floor and get to work!
Our team from Frisco brought some very fun crafts for the kids. In fact, some that are left over MIGHT get used with our WOMEN and YOUNG PEOPLE! The kids at Kids' Club, LOVED them and, on the last day, wrote notes to thank us for coming and giving them such a good time! Very sweet, messy, misspelled notes that we'll treasure!

Kids' Clubs and Construction

Misionera de Verano (Summer missionary) Angie does an excellent job teaching the Bible lesson at the Kids' Club

For lack of a table and a very small space, we used chairs for the craft! The kids had a ball, covering their door hangers with more stickers than you can imagine! Our meeting room is a garage, quite small, but no one complained, in fact the kids enjoyed every moment of it!

Our game today was Musical Chairs. Doing that in a room the size of a garage is a challenge, but we managed and the kids had fun! The boys won today! We'll see what happens during the games tomorrow!

This week a team of nine is here from Frisco, Texas, blessing us with their enthusiasm and wonderful help. Part of the team is working at our community outreach center, putting in a ladies' bathroom. We're excited! They've tiled part of it after Day 1 and it looks beautiful! Some of them are sore, not used to this kind of work, but are still enthusiastic and excited! Three of the gals are doing the crafts and games for two kids' clubs, one held in the morning and one in the afternoon. This morning we had about 24 kids and it went very well. The afternoon club had about 16 children and also went well. The kids are super excited and I suspect we'll have even more come tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll try to get some pictures of the hard-working folks making a beautiful bathroom for us!

Schindler's List

Remember the movie Schindler's List? Well, the book is even worse! It's very graphic in describing some of the atrocities done to the Jews during World War II. WHY do I read books of this kind?? I DON'T KNOW! I guess to remember, to not forget such important history. Actually, I listened to this book on tape - and, in spite of it being hard to listen to, I enjoyed it!

Along with that, I read So Young to Die by Candice F. Ransom, a Scholastic biography about the short life of Hannah Senesh, a Jewish girl who joined in the struggle for a Jewish homeland and was killed for her efforts. But she's a hero and it was very interesting reading!

Nallely celebrates her 15th birthday

Last Saturday we enjoyed a very traditional and fun quinceañera party. Nallely in her beautiful aqua dress was radiant. Her "chambelanes" (chamberlains!) included her brother Cristian on the right. The celebration included the giving of the Bible, the promise ring, the last doll, the necklace, the crown, the floral arrangement and the pillow on which she kneeled while Uncle Dan Kendal prayed. We also sang her favorite songs, Scott Yingling gave a message and the parents said a few words, expressing their joy on this happy occasion.

Bethie and I helped Nallely cut the cake, then we sat back while thankfully someone else served it. Traditionally the one(s) giving the cake cut and serve it, but Nallely's mom was kind enough to let us off the hook!

Nallely with her parents Juan and Carmen. Carmen cooked the meal for the 200+ guests and did a fantastic job. She's a wonderful cook!

Nallely danced the traditional waltz with her "chambelanes" then did the traditional waltz with her dad. It was very sweet. Then, something I'd never seen before, she waltzed with all her male relatives - and she has a bunch of them - ending with her brother and dad.

The last dance was a "copy" from the film High School Musical. It was very cute and it was obvious the young people were having fun, fun, fun!

A visit to Maria de la Luz

Maria de la Luz is 78 years old, but easily looks 100. Linda, Mary and I visited her last Thursday. She had recently fallen, so had a big purple bump on her head, a purple cheek and one leg was purple from top to her toes. Yes, she looked terrible, but she was in good spirits. Her daughter and family lovingly care for her. We read some Psalms and prayed together, as well as visiting for a good long time. When Maria de la Luz spoke, it was almost impossible to understand her, but by the end of the visit, I was catching a word here and there! I'm always encouraged when the ladies of my church want to visit! It was good and I hope we continue visiting.

Into Africa's Interior

No, I'm not going to Africa, I just read about it! I don't know why I'd never heard of Rowland Bingham, the founder of SIM, Canadian Keswick Conference, Evangelical Publishers, The Evangelical Christian, and the Soldiers' and Airmen's Christian Association. What a fascinating book! At age 20 Bingham committed himself to serving in Africa and this book gives the account of how he did it, in spite of "experienced missionaries who told Rowland that his dream was impossible." It's by YWAM and I highly recommend it!

It's fixed

This morning Julio fixed the shift key on my laptop. I think it'll be good for another 20,000 or so shifts! Gracias, Julio!

Now, when you tell someone, "It's fixed", what do you mean? It's fixed! Right? It will work from now on, it won't break within a week or two, it's ready to go for good! Well, that isn't always the case in our neighborhood!

For months the neighbors have complained about the terrible state of the 3 block road into our subdivision. And, yes, it's terrible! The shocks on my car have gone out long ago - on all our cars! Well, one day, to my surprise, there were barrels set up so we had to detour around the terrible state of things. And there was a huge truck at the end of the road! Yahoo! They're fixing it!

They fixed it all right. They poured gravel all down the road, covering the terrible pot holes. It's fixed! For a week or so! Now that the rains have started, it's almost as bad as it was before. Almost. And getting worse fast! But, IT'S FIXED!

A favorite photo

What'd you say? You want another one? Sure, no problem!

Happy moments

Granddaughter Raquel just before being baptized by her very proud and happy dad!

Dad (Jeff) just baptized daughter Victoria. A very happy moment!