I wrote in my last blog that Lynette was the littlest guest, but nope, Joel was! And is he a cutie! He's all smiles most of the time too. His mama and daddy are Francisco and Gaby and his DOTING grandma is Ivonne. Behind Joel you can see our oldest guest, Michelle O'Brien's Grandma who is visiting - I can tell you her age, because she tells everyone anyway! She's 90 and quite the lady! I hope I have her energy when I'm 80 - I'd rather NOT be 90!! I enjoyed having her here and I know Tim and Michelle are enjoying her!



El Chavo piñata!! What fun. Hand picked by the birthday boy, Justin! He knew as soon as we walked in the store which piñata he wanted!

The absolute highlight of the party was the bouncy castle! Wow! Did the kiddos have a ball with it! Tim and Michelle brought it - thank you SO MUCH, guys!

There's Jason helping Justin up on the bouncy. Justin was wild with excitement from the minute he arrived until they left! I'm sure he'll sleep good tonight!

Some of our guests

Miguel and Minerva and their five kiddos. They're a really, really sweet couple!

Francisco and Gaby (Gaby is Ivonne's daughter) and their two little ones, Vanessa 3 and Joel 6 months.


I think Lynette was the littlest guest - she's two and very tiny! And very cute!


Miguel and Minerva's two oldest children, Adriana and Miguel. They're just the cutest and sweetest kiddos - all five of them. That's Samuel O'Brien behind Miguel.



Marta came with her daughter Susy and that little Lynette is Marta's granddaughter. Marta's much too young to be a grandma, but she's gone and done it twice already!!

What am I here for???

Do you ever feel like you're floundering? Wondering what in the world is going on? Well, for the past week I've kind of felt that way. Suddenly I had THREE gals that I wanted to share Jesus with, BUT.... Yes, but...

...But when I got to Rosa Maria's house on Tuesday, she wasn't there! And that was after going around the HUGE UNWIELDY San Juan blocks three times to find a parking spot! I called her later and her daughter had invited her for supper and said she was going to keep inviting her so she wouldn't "read" the Bible with me! But Rosa Maria assured me she'd be home next Tuesday! I'll call first.

...But I've found it impossible to get together with my neighbor Estela for over two weeks. I wondered if she was avoiding me. Well, this morning I caught her arriving home from an errand! Yay! She wasn't avoiding me, she has some serious legal problems in her family and has been traveling to Amealco everyday to try to sort them out. (She described them, and YES, they're serious!) She said, "Please pray for me!" Which I assured her I was already doing! "And let's get together for coffee when this is over." I'd even be willing to drink coffee if it meant getting together with her!

...But when I called Rosa Juana to see if she was home yesterday, no answer, all day. So, I didn't go. But then I got thinking, maybe her phone doesn't work - a distinct possibility here in Mexico! So, today I headed to her house. Well, sure enough she wasn't home, and there's a bill stuck in her door, so she's probably been gone a couple days. I'll keep trying!

...God has His reasons for these disappointments. And I'm just waiting on Him!

Run, Peanut!!

Peanut LOOOOOOOVES it when they water our "community yard." When we go out to chase the ball, all I have to say is, "Run, Peanut!" and she's OFF! She chases the water, bites it, barks at it, and gets totally soaked. If I'm not careful, I also get soaked when she comes back to me!





Here's our beautiful palm tree near the entrance of our community. It used to have dead palm leaves hanging from it, but they've been removed. They're still piled up below the tree (see last two pictures), but eventually someone will come take them away.



Here she comes bringing the ball back to me, so I can throw it again! She loves it! She wears herself out chasing that ball, but never tires of doing it!




Here she comes again. Oops! Where's the ball?! Well, she had it a minute ago, but that spraying water got in the way and she had to chase it awhile! So, the ball was forgotten. Do you see it? I don't either! I have to carefully watch where the ball lands, or I'll end up searching our whole yard for it! Because she has no clue where she left it! Several times today she forgot about her ball, came chasing back to me and looked at me as if to say, "Well, where's the ball!" Oh, you dog of little brain!

Tuna drink

We call them "tunas." That's not to be confused with the tuna fish! It's a fruit - I guess you "gringos" would call it prickly pear fruit! It grows on the nopal cactus.

There are red tunas, orange tunas and green tunas, which, in our area are the most common. I've seen the red ones, but they're so tiny, I just pass them up. But the other day I bought 2 kilos of green tunas for just 12 pesos (less than a dollar). So, now, what do I DO with all these tunas??? I ate some of them. To eat, you must peel first, but CAREFUL, they're full of prickers! It's best to touch them with a towel, rag or anything to protect your fingers! Those prickers are hard to get rid of (I tell you from experience!). Once peeled, they're luscious. OK, OK, so they're a little tough to eat, cause they're completely filled with seeds, but still delicious and very juicy! But there are still lots left. So.....

I made a delicious drink! Very refreshing, so sweet, you hardly need to add sugar. Just pop the tunas in the blender (after peeling them, of course!), blend with water, add more water and just a tad of sugar. Delicious!




I know that when Alan, Beth and the boys return from the States, we won't be having this drink at a meal anytime soon, so I have to enjoy it now! But notice the cool mug!! It's blown glass and has these cool chiles on the side - fun to drink anything, be it tuna or lemonade from this mug!

Sad trees in our neighborhood

We've had some big trucks in our neighborhood recently. They're pruning the trees - I wouldn't actually call it that, I'd call it, sheering them! The big palm tree near the entrance does look nicer without all the dead palms it used to have hanging from it, but the rest of the trees don't look any better than they did before - in fact, they look a little worse! But I guess they'll grow back!

Nice or awful? It sure eliminated a lot of our shade!!

And notice the dried out grass. It's supposedly rainy season now, but we've had very little rain. They do water the grass, but it still isn't very green.

Two birthday parties in two days!

Yesterday Mary invited me to her birthday dinner. She made the pozole, but her daughters did all the rest: cut the veggies, set the tables, made the jamaica, and cleaned up afterwards! There were 16 of us there, including myself and Tim and Michelle O'Brien who brought along Michelle's 90 year old Grandma. The rest of the guests were Mary's husband, children and 2 grandchildren. What a grand time! The cake was a tres leches (three milks) cake - and delicious!

And today at church we had visitors from Mexico City - about a dozen of them! Stu and Cristina Grewatz had brought several folks from their church to "camp out", complete with tents, here in Santa Cruz Nieto (which is a part of San Juan). Mary invited them to eat with their family - and she invited me too! How could I refuse?? Nacho bought broasted chicken and Mary had fixed macaroni and black beans. Stu sneaked out before we ate and bought a gorgeous - and delicious - cake to help Mary celebrate her birthday again! She was certainly surprised!! There were about 21 of us at this party! What a super time with my "hermanos".

I took some great pictures of the birthday "girl" and her hubby, as well as some of the families who were there, but I think I accidentally deleted them. So be it! Learning experience???

An amazing three days!

A team of 17 folks from Beloit, Kansas are at Camp Koinonia right now. Many of them participated in a Medical Caravan held last Thursday, Friday and Saturday. As people from the community arrived, they were directed first to these tents set up in the driveway, where they were presented with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and given literature. The children were directed to another larger tent where they sang, learned Bible verses, listened to Bible stories and did handwork. From there they went to the doctors' and dentists' offices and received free help for their problems. I was privileged to serve as translator for Dr. Kris Kringle (OK, I'm kidding!) - Dr. Kris Kimple! He was a delightful man and so sweet and gentle with his patients. We worked almost non-stop for the three days, taking a break for a quick lunch, then back at work until 6 PM. We could have kept working, but needed a break - but the next day the community folks were back early - and every person I talked with was extremely grateful for the wonderful help these doctors and dentists were able to give.


It takes A LOT of people to run a Medical Caravan - and here we are! Three Mexican dentists participated, a good group from Celaya, three American doctors and one Mexican doctor, several ladies served as cooks, teens assisted the dentists, and quite a number of young people served anywhere they were needed. And yes, the young people cleaned the bathrooms and washed dishes twice a day! With a smile!



The meals were simple, but good. There is no "dining room" at our camp, so we all sat around wherever we could find a spot, to eat our meals.


Several of the men on the team from Kansas worked on - would you believe!! - a miniature golf course! I don't know how much cement they worked with, but it was a lot! Each evening, it was obvious that they had worked HARD in the hot sun. Soon this mini golf course will be finished and the young people are VERY EXCITED for the chance to initiate it!

More Medical Caravan pictures

Now, no one at the camp is cuter than Annie Hower! Here's she's scarfing down her breakfast. Notice, some of her scrambled eggs landed on the cement blocks! She loves all the extra attention when there are lots of people around!


We had a lot of really cute kids, but these two were some of the cutest! They're twins and were obviously very close - and very cute! As soon as Dr. Kris' little light got near them, their mouths popped open - they knew the drill! They weren't very sick, which was nice - some of the little ones were pretty sick, but I think the doctors were able to really help.


Here's Dr. Kris in his cubbyhole. All the workers wore the scraves like he's wearing. I would sit on the chair behind him and the patients would sit on the chairs in front of him or on the cot.


One of our hardworking dentists was Dr. Paty from Puebla. Back in the dark ages (80's!!) we got acquainted with Paty in Puebla. Cheryl Eberline took Judi to her, then the Moses's took her under their wing, led her to the Lord, discipled her and even took her on an extended trip throughout the U.S.! It was an incredible joy to see Paty again and spend time reminiscing! She said to say HI to all of my kids - so, HI! She remembers them as very small children and I was delighted to show her my pictures!

This dentist - I forget his name - came from Querendaro, where he has a successful dentist office and has been on many, many Medical Caravans. His wife and two children always accompany him - reminded me of the days my kids and I always accompanied Dad on his trips! They are a delightful couple.

Happy birthday Estela

At our ladies' prayer meeting each Monday we sing, share and pray. But once a month or so, after singing, sharing and praying, we celebrate birthdays! Only Estela had a July birthday, but the celebration was just as big and exciting as if there'd been five of us! She wouldn't tell us how old she is! Thought you'd like to see some of the yummies we share at birthday celebrations! And yep, the FANCY cake was baked and frosted in MY kitchen!




Estela, the birthday girl, made tamales for us. They are an unusual kind. Very tiny, round, covered with some kind of leaf, filled with chicken or pork and green or red sauce. And, they're DELICIOUS! Estela loves making them - and we love eating them! The drink? Good old fashioned coca cola!

Zaira, Mary and Rosaura

Ilse and Karla

And if someone knows how to change the date on my pictures from 2007 to 2009, I'm all ears!