King Cake - Mexican style

Tamales

Embedded in the rosca are little plastic babies.  Depending on the size of the rosca depends on how many babies are in it.  Each person receives a slice of this cake.  If the serving holds a little plastic baby, then he or she has to make tamales for everyone at the party on February 2nd, Candelaria Day. Hence, another party ensues!  Let’s just keep it goin’!  We’ve been through two Christmas’ in Mexico without having rosca.  It took moving to El Paso to experience this tradition.  Our neighbors invited us over for cake and champurrado, a hot chocolate type drink.  You can read a recipe here.

Champurrado

It was all teasing and games as Torre cut the first three pieces for our family.

Torre begins slicing our pieces.

Then he cut mine.  This American has never made tamales in her life and there, in my piece, was a plastic baby with the word, “Tamales” under it.  Everyone thought it was hilarious that the girl who has zero experience gets to make them.  All in good fun, they will be teaching me if they want edible tamales.

So many of you have prayed for us, supported financially, or through packages, or in words.  We’ve been with New Tribes Mission for four and a half years and here in this guest house ministry for one.  We could NOT be here where He has us if it were not for you.  We truly believe we are serving Him WITH you.

Before - well the starting stages of distruction.

It all started with a dripping faucet.  I reported to Torre that room #110 had a dripping faucet, one that could not be tightened.  No problem!  Right?  WRONG!  After two hours of installing the new faucet Torre was back home informing me that we needed to go to the store to pick out a new vanity and sink.  What?!?!  So there we are, the kids running up and down the plumbing aisle, Torre speaking Chinese to me about the process (not really, but I was so not following), and me trying to figure out what is the best “look” for the bathroom and the best price and get home so we can eat dinner.  We had less than 24 hours to do all this, as the room was to be occupied the next day.  I’d just like to give God credit for providing a slightly damaged, already marked down vanity so we could get the sink top we really wanted, and an amazingly talented Torre to install it!  Ta-da!  All in a day’s work.  Literally.

Done.

After - removed the never used medicine cabinet and flipped the mirror.

The child has discovered how to cool off....yes that is the dog bowl.

So it’s been a little hot.  Like a LOT of hot.  100 deg temps for most of August.  I’m trying not to complain.  I’m trying to compare it to winters in Michigan when it’s April and it’s not quite spring yet, and you’re so tired of being cold for the past five months you wonder if it will EVER warm up.  So it’s been hot for the past four months and I’m wondering if it will EVER cool off!  Well, this morning we woke up to THIS:

Clouds!!!

That my friends is cloud cover.  Meaning, limited amount of sun.  Combined with temps in the 90′s, this means….it’s cooler out!!!  MEANING, fall WILL arrive!

Her cry came from Turin’s room, the kind of cry that told me she was hurt.  Turin yelled, “Mommy, hurry, hurry!”  I ran in to find her on her back on the floor with Turin on his bed.  It was obvious they were both on the bed and she had fallen off backwards onto the floor.  She was crying and as I picked her up she just stopped.  Stopped crying, stopped breathing, stopped moving.  I blew in her face, yelled her name, and kind of bounced her, all things that would snap Turin out of it.  Nothing.  I went running through the house to find Torre in the garage running a table saw (yes, terrible timing for all of this to happen).  As I rounded the corner Lydia slowly brought her head up.  To Torre she looked fine and he wondered why I was yelling.  It was the most terrifying moment yet for me as a mom.  Lydia is fine.  Once I stopped shaking I was fine.

All of this reminded me how amazingly fragile and fast life is.  How moments like this aren’t out of God’s hands, we are IN His hands.  I can’t prevent everything, I’m not supposed to.  Folks ask us how we could have lived in Mexico, weren’t we scared?  God protects His children everywhere.  He will care for us in Mexico and He will care for us in the USA.  Bad things can happen to us in Mexico and bad things can happen to us in the States.

Often we pray for our future, and for the future of our family.  We know many of you pray for us as well.  It was during a day like this that I felt His people praying for His children.

This is....

...and this...

...and so is this.

Teaching?  No.  But it’s important to my Lord, none the less.  New Tribes refers to this site as “My Ministry Website”.  I had a hard time knowing what to post, things just didn’t seem that “exciting”.  Until I realized that my ministry is where God has me.  He has me here for this time in my life, and I’m going to share about it.

Mackinaw Bridge

That was the fastest five weeks of my life!  I’ll admit there was a point in there that I was ready to come home, but now that we’re back “home” I’m missing friends and family in Michigan.

We had an amazing time.  Visiting friends and family filled our evenings and checking out local parks and nearby zoos occupied our days.  Thanks to Torre’s willingness to watch the kids on multiple occasions, I was able to have some one on one time with friends at various points in the trip.

Staying with my folks was a help as there were two extra bodies to help with Turin and Lydia as well as free babysitting!  Lydia decided to walk while she was there and Turin seemed more receptive to playing with his little sister.

Since we were adjusting to a time change and putting the kids through lots of travel anyways, we decided to keep going and take  10 hour drive to the upper peninsula to visit a church and friend in Marquette, Michigan.  I’d like to add that the weather was A-mazing.  While El Paso was experiencing triple digits, we were enjoying the sun with 70 degree days.

I still feel like we are recovering from the time away and getting readjusted to our ministry once again.  We couldn’t have been gone this long without an amazing couple watching and caring not only for the guest house, but also our own house!

Thanks to all of you who were praying for this time in Michigan.  Continue to pray for travels in the coming weeks as we head into Mexico for some team meetings.  We’ll keep you posted!

—Narah

After spending the past two Independance Days in Mexico we were thrilled to be part of our freedom celebration in the states.

View from the front window

While I have spent most of my life in Michigan I had forgotten how GREEN it was since we left for the desert of Mexico.  Really really really GREEN.  Upon landing in Michigan and driving to my parents house, I kept feeling as if things were overgrown.  The lushness was almost claustrophobic.  I had a sudden urge to tear out all shrubbery surrounding their house.  What was happening to me??  Someone just give me a large open space, please!  Torre pointed out that now I understood how he felt when he moved to Michigan from southern Idaho where he could see for miles.  However, I am happy to report that since being here I have adjusted to the trees once again and am enjoying the smell of rain and grass.

View from the back window...green anyone?

We have moved a lot.  A LOT.  As a girl whose family moved once when I was in college, I was not accustom to moving.  Moving really helps cut your accumulation of stuff.  In the kitchen I eventually developed the mentality that if it only serves one purpose, save the coffee maker and maybe the garlic press, it didn’t make the move.  Therefore our child has never seen us use a toaster.  We have survived.  Yes, you can broil or fry your bread for your morning toast and who needs waffles, when pancakes taste just the same?  And water boiled in a pot tastes just as, well, hot, as water boiled in a teakettle.

However, since this last move with more cupboard space than I know what to do with (I even have one drawer for my dish towels!!), I have found myself desiring a toaster.  <sigh> Just with a touch of a button and not worrying about forgetting it and setting off the smoke detector.

God is good!  A few weeks ago we were contacted by a couple who was moving and wanting to get rid of lot of random household items.  Among them, a toaster!  The first time I got it out Turin said, “What’s that?”  AND a blender!  (still not sure what we’re going to blend just yet)  And then someone bought us a waffle maker, which I’ll admit, we’ve used just about every weekend…and this past week, my grandpa who was here to visit, bought me a teakettle.  It’s so pretty.

As I was toasting yet another slice of bread I was telling God, “Thanks Lord for providing these conveniences in our lives, and also for teaching us how to be content without them.  You manage to show yourself through the simplest of things, including this toaster.”