Last days of SMCA

Here are some pictures from our last few days of school. We had a great year together studying Botany and ancient world history.

Here we are making the cover for our SMCA time capsule. Some of our original SMCA students are moving to Cancun next year. I thought a time capsule would be a great way to end our time together. Each student filled a ziplock bag with momentos, pictures, and letters to themselves in 10 years. Together we put the time capsule in the ground and covered it with this mosaic. We all decided we would meet back in 10 years to open it together!!! (notice my wonderful boyfriend helping with the art project. He also was the one who finished the time capsule, along with many other projects I start and then don't know how to finish ... what would I do without you Cheque???)

Here we are on a Botany fieldtrip. My 4 students and myself went to a local park with a stream to have a picnic lunch and look for plants! It was really fun.

Botany scavenger hunt!

My very studious students studying a plant for a nature journaling project.

Josh with his pastry booth at Ancient Roman Market Day. At the end of the unit each student created goods that would have been sold in Ancient Rome for our market. It was a huge success :)

The iron goods booth.

Chloe at the pottery booth.

Miss Beth buying some sandles from Corinna.

Ben the money changer.

All of us Ancient Romans!!!

Snake Toys

If anyone out there thinks life is dull, you need to move here! There is always something new to experience. One day, a few weeks ago, we had finished up at the soup kitchen and I was talking with some ladies when I noticed a commotion outside. This is what I saw....

Yup. That's a snake ... it was dead, but still really big! Someone had found and killed it and was now showing it off. The kids were all touching it and holding it. For my one little buddy, Jesus, (the boy in the picture) he had found a new play thing. He toted that dead snake around for the next hour playing with it, petting it, holding it. I asked Cheque if that wasn't kinda strange to do... I mean, play with a dead snake? Cheque reminded me that these kids hardly ever get new toys. They are used to being creative and playing with whatever they can find... this was a perfect example. As for Jesus, he was perfectly content :) To end the story, later Milagros (the girl the the first picture) told me that they might go home and fry the snake up for dinner... I guess that is one way to be resourceful :)

Lives Sweetened with the Fruit of the Spirit

Well, the school year ended terrifically with the close to our unit on the fruit of the Spirit in the Rio. After talking for weeks on end about the Holy Spirit and each fruit He gives us, we decided to end with an illustration of what our lives look like with and without those fruits. We had about 50 kids present that day and all eyes were glued on the activity. Beforehand I had bought several fruits and labeled each with a spiritual fruit given by the Spirit (ex. Pear labeled "faith", pineapple as "peace", etc.). I also had bought some not-so-good-tasting foods, like onion, jalapeño, and garlic and labeled those with opposites to the fruit of the Spirit (ex. onion labeled "fear"). We also had two blenders labeled "my life". One of the gals helping me out that day told stories describing the lives of two children... one listened to the Holy Spirit when making decision and the other did not. As she told the stories we began adding ingredients to the smoothies. One blender was full of the "fruits of the Spirit" and the other full of foul tasting combinations. At the end we blended everything up and ask for volunteers to try each "life". With squeals several kids tried both the bad and good tasting smoothies.... the point was clearly demonstrated :) Our lives our so much sweeter with the fruit of the Spirit in them!!!!

The children watching as the smoothies are being made.

Fruits and blenders labeled for the activity.

Our courageous volunteer trying the "life without the Holy Spirit" smoothie.

Maru and I preparing Fruit of the Spirit smoothies for the kids.
Nubia coloring a tree with the Fruit of the Spirit.

Our Awesome God!

Okay, I just had to put up these pictures of the mountains in front of and behind where I live. Isn't our God so cool!!!??? Wow! I am constantly shocked by our creator.

Came out to run one morning and saw this fog rolling in...

A sunset view from the front of our property.

A lover of God...who sometimes ministers to the poor

The title of this blog post is the title I want over my life. A few days ago us staff women had a evening of prayer and worship. I was feeling disconnected from the Lord, burdened by the work I had to do, overwhelmed by problems in the areas I minister, etc... In the midst of one of the worship songs, I had the sudden feeling that the Lord was trying to speak to me... I was overwhelmed with a sense of the Holy Spirit and in my heart I heard His kind voice say, "Your relationship with Me is more important than your ministry."... Those words echoed off the walls of my heart... "Your relationship with Me is more important to Me than your ministry."... He wants me, more than He wants my work for Him? He desires relationship with me more than He desires that I serve in the Rio, teach at SMCA, organize prayer meetings, etc... On the grand scheme these things don't matter... it is me (and you) that He finds important. He wants that we be lovers of Him first and foremost. He desires that we be defined by our relationship with Him first, then by whatever else it is we do... that is the priority order. Him first.

I want to love God more! I want to be so consumed with His love for me that I am compelled to share it with others through my actions and words!... Not to share His love from duty, but from the overflow of a vibrant relationship with Him.

Oh, Lord woo our hearts! Change our perspectives and our priorities. Show your Bride that you love her first. That You desire her to be define by Your love for her.

Who am I? I am my Beloved's and His desire is for me (Song of Solomon 7:10). What do I do? I love God... and occasionally minister to the poor. Amen.

Spa Day at the Rio

A few weeks ago God laid on my heart a message about holiness in Christ to share with the Rio women. I began sketching out the lesson with the help of my Spanish teacher and friend, Priscila. I wasn't sure when I would share the message until Priscila came up with the idea to have a women's day with the Rio ladies. We began working and planning and soon after went to the Rio with a group of college folks to host a spa day for the women.

The men in the group cared for the kids and did some work around the comedor while the group ladies helped the Rio women with the spa day. We brought with us various cleansers and makeup items for the ladies to use. Priscila led a class where she taught the ladies how to clean their faces, moisturize, and apply makeup all the while connecting what they were physically doing with what God is capable of doing spiritually in their hearts. After the makeup I shared with the women about how Christ sees them; about how they are called "holy" when Jesus dwells in their lives. After helping them understand that Christ calls them Temples of the Holy Spirit, clean, pure, and beautiful I challenged the ladies to begin treating themselves according to this truth... and along with that, to treat others according to this truth.

One big problem I have seen in the Rio community is a mentality that does not see value. Many of these ladies do not see themselves as worthy of being treated well or with honor. As a result they often let themselves be mistreated by husbands and boyfriends and even mistreat themselves. Often they cannot love their neighbors because they do not love themselves. The spa day turned out to be a great success!!! The ladies had TONS of fun putting on makeup, cracking jokes, and just being pampered. Having the kids entertained by the men in the group was also a welcomed break to these moms. Several of the group ladies shared testimonies about keeping their lives pure and holy... and I can only hope the Rio women were affected. I didn't see much response while I was teaching, but was encouraged by the way they listened and am praying that the truth of how Christ sees them continues to sink in. Please continue to pray for these Rio ladies.

The Rio ladies cleaning faces.

Tere laughing as she scrubs and moisturizes her hands.

One of the group gals helping to apply eye shadow.

Here I am teaching!!! (Praise Jesus for sooo much grace with Spanish!!!)

Goin' to the Chapel...

... Well maybe more like goin' to a quinta :) Two weeks ago I had the awesome privilege of participating in a traditional Mexican wedding. My novio's sister, Maru, got married in a very small town 9 hours from Monterrey in the middle of what seemed like nowhere... or like what you would imagine Columbia to look like :) The town, Tamazunchale, was quaintly nestled in lush, rain forest covered mountains. The drive there was breath taking... in two senses of the word; both beautiful with amazing flowering trees and also terrifying with treacherous roads spiraling up and down the mountains!

Over the past year and a half I have gotten to know Maru quite well. Her and her now husband, Emmanuel, have helped at the Rio soup kitchen for the past year and Maru has lived on the B2B campus for the past 2 years with her family. I was very honored when she asked if I would be a "madrina" in her wedding. Padrinos and Madrinas are a part of every Mexican wedding. These couples present the bride and groom with various symbolic gifts during the wedding ceremony. The gifts include rings (to symbolize unity), coins (to symbolize provision), a lasso (to symbolize the binding together of the bride and groom), a pillow for kneeling (to symbolize prayer), and a Bible (to symbolize a marriage founded on the Word of God). Cheque and I presented Maru and Emmanuel with the Bible during the ceremony.

Maru and Emmanuel decided that they wanted to have a "charro wedding". This type of wedding is not super common today in Mexico, but was very common years ago... the closest thing I can tie it to in the American culture is if a couple decided they wanted to have a wedding reflecting the styles during the Civil War era... this is close to what a charro wedding is, but still not the same. Not only is a charro wedding traditional it also reflects the style of the national sport of Mexico known as Charreado that is still very active today, especially in central and southern Mexico. Both Maru and Emmanuel grew up participating in charreados. A Charreado is similar to a rodeo as we know it. Women compete on horses in various exercises that show control of the horse and on teams doing routines with the horses. The guys compete in events such as bull riding, bull roping, cow flipping, lasso exercises, and horse control exercises... it is really pretty interesting (see the pictures and videos below). The dress for this sport is very similar to the outfits we all wore at Maru's charro wedding... guys in sombreros, girls in flouncy dresses known as "escaramuzas". Here are some pictures of the wedding day and the day after when we went to an actual charreado.

This is my huge orange escaramuza dress that I got to wear in the wedding! ... good thing I tend to like bright colors :) Definitely a chance in a lifetime...

Emmanuel the night before his wedding day. It is traditional for the groom's family to place these flowers above the front door to notify the community that their son is getting married. The bride's family places flowers in the shape of a star above their front door. ( It is also tradition for the groom's parents to go to the bride's parents, after the boy has purposed, to ask permission for the girl to marry their son. I witnessed this two days before the wedding.)

Jumping back to the wedding day... In a charro wedding the family, wedding party, and some friends, ride on horseback in a parade to where the wedding is going to take place. I passed the parade in my car when they were still about 2 miles away. The guys rode on horseback for a mile, then stopped to pick up the girls who rode the rest of the way (another mile) to the wedding sight. The bride is in the buggy driven by her dad. The groom is riding the horse to the right of the buggy. The groom's dad is on the horse on the far left and my boyfriend (!!!) is on the horse to the right of the groom's dad.... all the guys wear sombreros :)

Beautiful Maru being escorted by her dad in the horse-drawn buggy.

After the bride in the buggy and the family, then comes the charros! These are friends of Emmanuel's family who paraded in. There were probably about 30 charros celebrating in the escort that day.
During the wedding ceremony, Maru's other brother, Antonio, and his wife place the lasso around the bride and groom as the pastor talks about its symbolism.

Here Cheque and I are presenting the Bible to Maru and Emmanuel during the ceremony.

Some "charros" we know! These are B2B friends and Maru's family who came to the wedding. This is what the guys wear to a charro wedding.

Maru's sister, sister-in-law, and me! This is what the girls where to a charro wedding.

Cheque and I looking VERY Mexican :)

The B2B staff who were present at the wedding.

The day after the wedding, Emmanuel's family hosted a Charreado for all the guests. This is a picture of a charro grabbing the tail of a cow before it is flipped. This is one of the events the guys compete in. Emmanuel is actually a really good cow flipper... I was surprised!

Click on the arrows below to see some wedding scenes and to see how to girls compete in a Charreado in what I call "synchronized horse dancing". Maru has competed in this sport for most of her life. Recently she was featured on the front of a magazine in Monterrey for abilities as an escaramuza (the name given to these girls).

FYI: sometimes you have to hit the play button a few times to get it to work. Enjoy! :)

Mariachi's singing at the wedding.

Games at the wedding reception are very common in Mexican weddings. This video shows the guys playing a game.

Escaramuzas. Usually they compete in flouncy dresses like what we wore for the wedding, however this is just a practice, not the real thing. Emmanuel's 2 sisters are among these girls.