A New Chair/School Supplies/Prayers for Jackie

Greetings Everyone-

What an interesting week this is shaping up to be! On Monday, Joel was busy with work while I was busy "re-upholstering" (did I spell that right?) a few pieces of balcony furniture. When we got here, we had "skeleton" furniture up there...Some metal chairs without cushions, a bare and gritty table, and a frame of a beach chair. I put cushions on the metal chairs, no problem! I have to say that my biggest accomplishment was restoring the frame of the chair with an actual functioning piece of fabric. While Jeanne was here, we borrowed a chair from the neighbor's (gracias Emelia!) to do measurements. We bought a dowel from the hardware store and a 1-meter piece of fabric from the fabric store. I was able to do the sewing at the pastor's house and while I was there, I went around the edge of the piece of fabric I bought for the table so now we have a wonderful new table cloth too. I also bought some fabric to make a curtain/partition for our balcony as it's split in half and we share with our neighbors. The best part about all this is that I bought all the fabric for about $20 and we practically have a new balcony! It's a blessing to be able to spend time up there, eating meals and enjoying the sunsets.






The chair before and after!










On Tuesday, we went back to Yelapa with Randy to the school to feed the kids. Joel had a great time with the kids playing soccer out in the field. Randy and I were also able to further discuss the school-nursing opportunities for the schools and communities he serves. We will have to meet with the principals of the schools and possibly some other people in the communities to get the word out. Now that I know what days he feeds and where, I can come up with a schedule of where I can go on Tuesdays and Thursdays. More to come on that story.

Yesterday, we went out to Pan de Vida to teach school. I took Faye's class (5,6,&7-year olds) while Joel had our usual crowd of pre-school aged kids. Faye is out sick this week...Dennis says she's been battling some kind of upper respiratory issue for about a month and decided to give her the week off. The dust out at the dump doesn't help her situation, so hopefully, she will have time to recover a little this week.

We bought some teaching supplies at the end of last week: a map of Mexico, with states and capitals, the Alphabet in Spanish, which also corresponds in English, a poster of the human body in Spanish and English, a poster of shapes and colors in Spanish and English, and a game about good character. We found that many of these kids don't even know their own alphabet yet, or numbers, etc...and so in order to be able to teach them in English, we feel that they should at least know the basics in their own language first. We are especially excited about the alphabet poster as "A" in Spanish can stand for Avion and Airplane in English (Avion means airplane), so they can be learning both at the same time. In contrast, on English alphabet posters, "A" usually stands for "Apple," which is translated to "Manzana" in Spanish, which if we were to use a standard English alphabet poster to teach these kids, they would think that "A" is for "Manzana." We don't want that to happen! I had a great time with Faye's class yesterday. I think it was the first time for them seeing a map of their own country. We started to work on the difference between a country, state, and city. They are so smart and were catching on really fast.





Lastly, and most importantly, we are asking for prayers for Jackie (Jaquelyn). We missed her all day yesterday, and right at the very end, after all the kids had already gone and right as we were leaving, she came literally stumbling in. She acted as if she didn't recognize any of us, not even Joel who has been her favorite since we've been here. She was filthy from head to toe and was totally dazed and confused. She sat on the floor looking around suspiciously, with a scared look on her face. When I knelt down to ask her what was going on, if anything had happened, if she was hungry, etc, she looked at me with fear and confusion as if she was afraid of me and didn't even comprehend what I was saying. The only one she seemed to know was Dennis, whom she asked for food. Jackie is normally very bright, energetic, and outgoing, totally opposite from yesterday. As I was trying to talk with her, I noticed that her pupils were pinpoint, and she was trembling a little, which could mean that something traumatic might have just happened, or she was drugged. We have learned that since drug abuse is such a huge problem out in the dump, it is not uncommon that kids can get into their parents' substances or the parents will sometimes use their drugs as tools of abuse. Jackie's family is one such family. Her mother abuses drugs as do her boyfriends. We learned that the addiction in Jackie's home is such that when Jackie or any of her siblings are given any new clothes, they are immediately sold right off their back for money for more drugs. We don't know for sure what happened to Jackie yesterday, all we can do is pray for her and her family. Please keep her in your prayers for God's protection and that she would continue to seek Pan de Vida as a safe place to be and in so doing, come to hear the message of Jesus. Please also pray for her siblings and mother.

Thanks everyone for checking in! We hope all is going well for you! We feel totally blessed to have the support that we do in everyone who is keeping us in their prayers. We look forward to reading your comments!

Leslie and Joel

Manual Labor and My Moms Visit

::MANUAL LABOR::
Thursday, I went with a church group from Colorado to do some Manual Labor at Pan de Vida. The original plan was to put a roof on the pastor's house, but the pastor prefered us to do work on the roof of the school.
Half the group went upstairs while I helped on a different project... A couple from Canada has a ministry to provide clean water in poor countries across the world. They have special steel molds to create concrete forms. When completed, they fill forms with Sand and Rock and the natural filtration can remove 98% of the impurities. The top level of the filter traps the bacteria which feeds itself as the dirty water is filtered through. 

Anyways, the forms had not been used since December and there was a fine layer of rust that needed to be smoothed with a grinder. My job was to grind the form as smooth as possible... I spent about 60 minutes on one side getting all the impurities off till it looked like polished silver. I found out that they did not need it that clean. So in 30 minutes I did the other three sides. The other team rotated 3 people to clean the inside form. Once polished they had to be oiled and assembled. Then we manually mixed concrete 2 parts Rocks 2 parts Sand and one part cement. We added water till it looked like cookie dough then poured it into the forms. It is tiring work to toss rocks with shovel and to lift 5 gallon buckets 4 feet off the ground to fill the forms.  All in all, I really enjoyed putting my muscles to work and to have an item that will benifit others long past when we leave.
You can check out their website www.friendswhocare.ca

http://www.friendswhocare.ca/BIOSAND%20INTRODUCTION%202005.ppt

Jeanne (Joel's Mom) flew in on Friday and we have had a great weekend with her here. Friday we ate at a nice restaurant, Si Señor. Saturday we rented a car to see the dump (North), get plants and go south to El Eden (where Predator was filmed). The driving experience in Mexico was not as bad as I anticipated. I was honked at early in the day for crowding out a motorcycle, but beyond that I felt like a real Mexican driver.
DUMP:: We explored the whole dump neighborhood and saw the Garbage built lean-to's. My Moms favorite decoration was bed spring fences... they look a little like Chain link.
PLANTS:: We picked up some plants for our balcony from Romy's Garden. Hibiscus, Bugenvilias and Taza de oros were among Leslies Top Selections. It took 3 tries to climb our hill with the rental car... but we finally made it to deliver the flowers. I think the trick was turning off the A/C.

EL EDEN:: The entrance to this location is a 2 mile dirt trail. Our car was a glorified Geo Metro and it was a difficult task to track all the way to entrance. Once we were there it really was beautiful, but probably not worth the trip.After returning the car, we ate dinner at Pepes Tacos. This was our first Taco experience since the September episode of food poisening from bad tacos. These tacos were great and we did not get even a hint of nausea.

Today I lead worship with Joy (the pastors wife) at church. The guitar I borrowed had an electronic imput that did not work, so I played acousticly. It felt great to lead a whole congregation in worship. I look forward to an opportunity to do it again.

After church we went to Sayulita. We had a great time renting body boards and watching surfers. 

While we were on the beach we noticed Whales playing near the horizon. They were the most active whales we've seen... They must have been playing. We closed out the weekend with dinner on the balcony.Sorry for the long Post... We will try not to skip so many days-

God Bless

Yelapa and Pan De Vida

Hi all-

This week has started out really busy for us as we've started doing more ministry. On Tuesday, we took a 45 minute boat ride to a little village called, Yelapa. You can only access it by boat. We went with a member of the church we have been attending, named Randy who was a former pastor for 28 years. He and his wife now run a feeding program for school children at 4 different schools during the week. All the schools are in areas that can only be reached by boat. He got the idea from a program in Guatemala in which a survey was taken that proved that given atleast 2 well-rounded meals per week, a child's nutrition and overall wellness increases. Needless to say, Randy feeds twice a week at each school.

Top: This is a picture of the "water taxi" that took us to Yelapa. They travel really close to shore and the waves were especially big that day and no life vests. Mom, I remembered to "look out" so I wouldn't get sea sick!
Middle: The ladies prepare the food at the school and serve it there. These are some of the kids who have just gotten out of class to come and eat their meal
Bottom: Some anxious and excited kids that are ready to eat and still have enough time to play before class starts again. They bring their own plate a cup each day.

Today we worked out at the dump for Pan de Vida with Dennis and Faye. It was amazing how many kids remembered us from being there only once before. Lucky for us, there were more volunteers there today, so instead of having a group of 8 or so at a time, we had 3-4. The kids are SO SMART! They remember information so well. Jaquelyn had a breakthrough this week in her behavior and discipline. She was anxious to color while the rest of the group was working on reading and English. We told her that Leslie would get her some crayons if she would wait a minute to receive them. As Leslie was looking for the crayons, she ran over instead of waiting. As we are trying to teach her focus, Leslie told her that she wouldn't get the crayons unless she sat still and payed attention for five minutes. Well, five minutes went by and she did GREAT! She got her crayons and was being really good about sharing pages from her coloring book with the other kids. Later, we made sure to tell her that she did a really good job of paying attention and being respectful of the other kids. Way to go Jaquelyn!

Top: These are two little girls from Leslie's group. The one on the left remembered her from last time, her name is Pearla. The one on the right was new today. Aren't they sweet!
Middle: This is one of the HUGE garbage mounds in which the parents of these kids "work." The picture just doesn't do it justice. You can't see them, but there are actually people in there sifting through to find things to sell, including recyclables, and looking for things to make their houses more "sturdy."
Bottom: Joel is working hard with his kids coloring and teaching English. Sometimes it's hard with our group because they are the 4 and 5 year olds that may or may not know how to count, say the alphabet, or say colors in their own language yet.

God is really shaping our hearts to love these kids. Most of them come from a horrific home life, full of abuse, neglect, assault...anything bad you can imagine. Pan de Vida offers consistency, a good meal, and lots of care and education. This mission is such a blessing for those kids, and truly the volunteers that work there...we fell blessed to be a small part!

The rest of this week will consist of Joel helping to replace the roof of the pastor's house out at the dump. He will be working along side a mission team from Colorado that is here for the week. Leslie will finish out the week at the school. On Sunday, Joel will have an opportunity to help lead worship at church as they don't have anyone to consistently play guitar...He is excited for the opportunity!

As time goes by, Leslie really has a vision to start working with Randy for 2 days a week (probably Tues. and Thurs.) to be kind of a "school nurse" out at the schools he feeds kids at. The rest of the week (Wed. and Fri.) will be spent out at the dump at Pan de Vida. We are thinking of every-other Saturday out there too. Joel really has a heart to use his muscles. He sees himself doing physical labor-type jobs often, continuing to help at the school, and plans on being Leslie's "nurse's aid" once a week as she goes out with Randy. Who knows...God has the ability to change the plans of man and so we are willing to submit to whatever he has for us. We know that as long as we have a willingness and a heart to serve, God will bless that by giving us the opportunities to do so.

Sorry it took so long to post this last blog...we will work on our consistency! We love you guys and appreciate you checking in!

The Kellners

The Hill-The Dump-Sayulita

Hello Everyone-
I finally took a picture of the hill... It does not look as steep as it actually is... I tried marking the verticals so you could get a better feel but it still does not capture the essence of steepness.

Yesterday we saw the ministry of Dennis and Faye. If I had to describe the scene in one word, it would be: Craziness. We arrived on a dusty street with garbage shack houses. The mission "Pan de Vida" (Bread of Life) is a concrete building where kids were already sitting for the meal before class.
Dennis and Faye had shopped at Sams club and delivered a ford explorer full of food and other items. We unloaded everything while the kids were given food. The process for eating works like this. First, the kids wash their hands and sit down at a table. Then volunteers deliver a plate full of food to each kid to be sure all have something. Once kids eat they are welcome to have 2nds until the food is gone or kids are full. After that, They wash their plates and cups them selves and place the clean items in a dish rack. Then sit at other tables for class.

Leslie and I shared a table and tried to teach young kids English words for items on flash-cards and days of the week. We had about 15 kids at our table and maybe 60 in the whole room.. There was lots of noise and Grabbing and coloring going on. It is going to be a challenge to come in and help establish order. There is no modeling of dicipline at their home, and many of the kids do not go to school. I think it would be great to show kids how to sit in their chairs and raise their hands to ask questions. I want to make a positive influence in their lives and am definitely going to need Gods help for wisdom.

I was given a special girl "Jacqueline". I think she may have A.D.D. because she has trouble sitting still and focusing for more than 1 minute. One problem they have is Jacqueline likes to go from one table to the next and distract the other kids. She was the first child to greet Dennis and Faye when we arrived. I think she is a very smart little girl. She was introduced to me when we arrived and remembered my name as we left. Pray that Leslie and I can help teach her patience and show her Gods love.

Today we took a day trip to Sayulita. It is a small beach town north of Vallarta. We bought a body board at Walmart. Leslie and I both went body boarding in the perfect waves of the bay. It was a nice way to spend a sunny Valentines Day together. I will have to add pictures later.

Like Leslie said, we are trying to relax and settle in this week before doing the ministry full time next week-

I hope all is well with you, thanks for checking in!

Joel and Leslie

First note from Leslie

Hi everyone! This is my first time actually writing on our blog spot!

Today was mine and Joel´s third straight day of shopping for supplies and we´re pooped! We don´t have much more to get besides a few decorations for our apartment, which I of course am in charge of. We finally went grocery shopping today for food and got our apartment a little organized...we still have a ways to go before it´s totally in order. The only thing we´ve had a hard time finding is a cheap microwave...the cheapest we´ve been able to find is $80...so maybe you could be praying for a microwave to fall into our laps!

Joel´s dad left today to go back home. He was really helpful in hauling all of our luggage and boxes up our HUGE hill. He was able to help trouble shoot and fix some things around our apartment too.

We´ll have to post a picture of our hill sometime...the majority of the taxi drivers refuse to drive us all the way home because of that hill. Before going home with a whole shopping cart full of things, we have to make sure our Taxi driver is willing to drive us all the way home. After today we shouldn´t have to take many more taxis as we won´t be needing a whole cart full of groceries or supplies every time we go to the store.

This transition has been really hard for me personally. I know we´ve only been here for three days, but I miss everyone and everything so much! Life here is definitely not the same. I LOVE it here, but as the saying goes, "There´s no place like home." Though it´s been a little stressful, I can see how God has totally provided for us spiritually, emotionally, financially, and energetically. Joel and I have managed to get everything we need, thanks to the Lord´s provision, and we´ve gotten along great so far! I know that this will be a time of "character stretching" that will only bring us closer to each other and the Lord.

For the rest of this week, we plan on spending time to finish organizing our apartment and hopefully relax a little before beginning ministry next week. Please be praying for anxiety levels to be going down as we settle into our new living space and that we would find the time to spend with God preparing ourselves to serve.

We love you guys!

We Made it!

Leslie and I woke up at 5am on Saturday to fly here to Puerto Vallarta via San Fancisco

We had 11 Checked bags and 6 carry-ons... My Dad flew with us to help avoid the extra Baggage fees. The flights all worked as planned. There were no delays and Leslie and I sat by eachother on both plane rides.

As you can see from the picture we made it and have an excellent view from the Balcony.

We went to church this morning and met one couple we plan on ministering with... They ate breakfast with us after church.

Most of today was spent shopping for the small essentials such as Clothing racks, Pots, Pans etc. It ended up not being as furnished as we originally thought...


We hope to keep everyone updated as to our progress-
We love you all and thank you for your prayers

Joel and Leslie