Torre and Narah Meissner Serving Him WITH you Snow in Mexico!!!
You read that right. We had SNOW today.
Let me tell you, it was God’s gift to us. With the holidays coming up, the sun going down at 6pm, and just plain ol’ tiredness setting in, one can’t help feeling a big down. I was feeling just like that yesterday. Talking with God and once again giving life to Him. When the snow came down today I couldn’t help but get choked up. I felt as if it was God’s gift to his child here. “Narah, I am still with you, I love you and I will always take care of you.”
So here are some pictures of God’s gift to His children, the Meissners’, here in Mexico.
The dusting.
The last time Turin saw snow he was two months old. Now he'll be two in December.
Don't worry, this was taken before Papa knew where the gloves and hat were stored.
Tags: Fall
The Boys
"Ohhh"
"Ahhh!!!"
"Cheese!"
From the front door
DoriNachos anyone?
We can purchace a lot of things without even leaving the front yard! On a regular basis we can get large jugs of water, gas tanks for the house, bread, tortillas, empanadas, DoriNachos and corn in a cup with cream (both yummy junk food), and on occasion a man will come by to sharpen kitchen knives.
Tags: Food
Teaching
The 5/6th grade class
August 17th marked a new day for me. It was my first official day of school…this time as the teacher. About three weeks before school was to start the Field Comittee asked us if we would consider me putting Spanish study on hold to fill an urgent need in the school for missionary kids. After praying about it, we said yes. Three weeks later I had my first day with ten students. Six fifth graders and four sixth graders.
We’re still a part of New Tribes Mission, that hasn’t changed. This school is part of the mission orginaziation. I tell the kids that I teach them because I love the Lord.
There is a bigger picture here as there is no money involved for this “job”, just a greater goal of seeing the tribal man or woman reached with the gospel. We are part of that picture, and so are you.
Narah
Tags: School
Turin update
Turin and Moby
Turin has changed so much in the year we’ve been here. First of all, he’s officially lived in Mexico longer than in the States. Here are a few fast facts on our changing boy who only a year ago couldn’t crawl and was eating all his food pureed…
He’s signing about six “words”….He uses a few actual words including: hat, Sit (that’s what he calls our dog), Mama (for both Mom and Dad), book, Hi, Hola, cracker, and galleta…well maybe for the last one it comes out “Lala”….He answers any question asked to him with complete udderences. ie: “Turin what are you doing?” “Ummm Grapshoud hsudldjahd shdud.” “What are you going to do after that?” “Uhhh dkdksj sjdkdfjj sksls.” Our friend Jay is convinced that when he does start talking it will be in complete sentences. I’m not sure if we’re ready for that….He plays with dad all morning and wants mom all afternoon….He can show you his muscles and blink his eyes when told “Haz ojitos (little eyes)”….He plays well with kids three and up. Kids his own age make him nervous….And yes, he can feed himself using a fork and spoon.
He’s a weird one, but we’ll keep him.
We are now “bloggers”…whatever that is.
I resisted the blogging wave, telling people it was just “one more thing” to update. Our NTM website was an example of how much I disliked updating. But NTM came to me! They have changed the website update to the blog style. I’m hoping this will encourage more updates on our family and our ministry as a blog seems more like an open conversation, but only time will tell. So welcome to our webpage, or is it a blog?
~Narah
Good-bye
I have decided that I don’t like being left. Up till now we have always done the leaving. Being the one leaving is kind of exciting, new things lay ahead, new adventures…okay so there is the scary unknown, but that’s what our Lord is for.
A few nights ago we soaked in time with our friends Jay and Liz before they left for Nebraska. They filled a much needed hole this year in the MK school. They became our neighbors in January and very fast friends. And now they are gone. I’m not sure how much I like this being left business. In the eleven months we’ve been here we’ve said good-bye to two wonderful families.
God is in change, we know that, but it doesn’t make it any easier.
On a lighter note…we’ve moved! Yep, movin’ up, literally. We’re in a two story, three bedroom house, yeah for space! Did I mention it has a yard? Almost unheard of in Mexico. It’s in a cul-de-sac neighborhood with a park in the middle. House number four for the Meissners, we hope the number stops there for a while. Another praise, the owner of the house is a joy. Her words were, “This is God’s house, and I am happy you can live here.”
The previous renters are missionaries who are heading to a new tribal work in the mountains of Mexico. They are currently visiting partners in the states and will return in August to start the process of living in the mountains. We’re so excited to know them and be a part of what they are doing to get the gospel to the unreached tribal people of Mexico. Click HERE to see their web page and learn more about them and see how your partnership is being used by God.
I feel like so much has happened in the last months. For pictures that tell more of the story, click HERE. And please, drop us a note, we so enjoy hearing from you.
Spring in Mexico
Wow, time does fly! It was mid February when we drove to church and there it was, an Iris blooming in the church garden. A flower, in February? Welcome to Mexico. We’ve been thoroughly enjoying "spring" for almost three months now.
Many of you might be wondering what we’ve been up to. Well that answer hasn’t changed much, Spanish study…still. There are days when we feel like, "Yeah, we’re getting this!" Then our neighbor comes over to chat with us and we return to, "Nope, we’ve got a long ways to go." We’ve been praying for friendships and ways to get to know folks and it’s been happening! Thank you Lord! With our new friends comes new frustration. We can often understand what they are trying to communicate but are lost as to how to respond. Our teachers tell us that this is where we’re supposed to be. So I guess mild frustration is a good thing?
We were blessed to have my folks visit us in February and Torre’s folks in April. We know they love us, but the truth is, they came for Turin. <click the highlighted words to see pictures>
We know this is where God has us right now. We know He is faithful. We know there are people who do not know of His faithfulness…let’s keep pressing on.
Serving Him WITH you.
Everything is fine
Not so good news seems to begin with the phrase, "Everyone is okay…"
This is more of a post update as the events have passed and "everyone is okay".
Monday evening both Torre and Turin came down with a stomach flu. They were both getting "better" on Tuesday, but by Wednesday evening Torre had immense stomach pain. The man who never wants to go to the doctor agreed to be driven to the ER by our friend. It was determined that he had food poisoning and they wanted to keep him overnight. Let’s just say it was a hard night for both of us.
By 7:00pm Thursday they let him go, feeling MUCH better.
This note is a prayer/praise. Prayer that the antibiotics he is continuing to take will help him remain healthy and praise that it wasn’t anything too serious.
Now we know the ins and outs of the ER here!
~Narah
A New Year.
There is something fresh that seems to come with a new year. 
Our holiday season saw many changes. We were able to visit Torre’s parents in Nevada. 
Torre’s mom had brain surgery the week prior to our visit. She had a non-cancerous tumor removed from her pituitary gland. Because of the rather surprise nature of the surgery we decided to spend Christmas with them. The time spent was special as Turin celebrated his first birthday December 24th 
and his second Christmas.
The New Year brought many changes. We said goodbye to our friends as we helped them pack their things and move back to the states. We said hello to their dog, 
Moby, a black lab, who is about nine months old now. New families have moved here to study Spanish, some going to other Spanish speaking countries, and others staying here to join the team of Mexico.
We’re still plugging along in Spanish and wondering if we’ll ever sound smarter than a first grader.
It was good to have the break, but even better to come "home".