We have been blessed with a couple days to relax after a tough end to last week. Joel worked at the Salvation Army building moving blocks for the professional Masons. I served twice on Friday. Serving the morning at Boca with Randy and finished out the week at school. We began planning the Vacation Bible school Water Camp. It will be 3 days March 17-19. Pastor Luis says the goal of the camp is to make sure every child will know the plan of salvation by the end of Wednesday.
I had a couple medical opportunities last week...one little girl had a really bad eye infection that Joel mentioned. We had to take her to the doctor. Another little girl came to school on Thursday with a big gash on her upper lip. She had fallen and knocked out one of her front teeth and had bitten through her lip (sound familiar mom?). I didn't want to take her to the doctor immediately because she hadn't bitten all the way through and it was too late for stitches and her tooth had come out cleanly. I cleaned it up the best I could and put some good 'ol' Neosporine on it. The next day it looked 10x's better. I treated it the same and am confident for a full recovery for her.
We took Saturday off...we decided to do every-other Saturday out at the school. We had a chance to go out to Sayulita and had a lot of fun. The waves were rough at first for body boarding and were calmer later in the day. We had a nice lunch on the beach too! We bought Tamales for 10 pesos each ($1) from a lady who had made them fresh from home and was selling them out of a bucket. They were delicious! After Sayulita we were supposed to meet someone at Walmart with a 92 Jetta. He never showed and instead we met a man in the parking lot with a 99 Tsuru his business is buying and selling cars for a living.
Sunday, we went to church. The people really came alive when we sang the Hymn "Blessed Assurance". Joel did not know that song before, but sees that Hymns are very important for the older people in the congregation. He looks forward to learning the classics to relate to the audience. We rushed up to Home Depot after church to look at a 95 Jetta. I got another house plant and Joel bought some work gloves. Exausted, we spent the majority of the afternoon at home, resting and recovering.
Today, Monday, Joel is working here at home, and I am working on cleaning the apartment and doing laundry.
The week will begin tomorrow for Joel, as he will be going out again to do physical labor at the new Salvation Army building. I will start on Wednesday by going to one of Randy's schools out in Quimixto (pronounced cu-mix-toe). There is finally a nursing opportunity for me in the works, starting out there. More to come on that later. The plan is also to go out to Pan de Vida Wed-Sat.
The big news that we are asking for prayers for is that we are looking for a car...in the $2000-$3000 price range. We would be purchasing it with some of the money we have been saving for this opportunity since we got married. There are several reasons why we think it would be beneficial to have a car. We feel like it would help us be more effective and efficient in ministering. So far, we have been dependent on others for rides out to school and to catch the boat. There have been times where the car is so full that there's barely enough room for everyone. We also still have all the boxes of clothes to take out to the school, that we haven't had the opportunity to bring due to full cars. Though we aren't here for convenience sake, it would be so much more convenient to have a car for things like trips to the grocery store and Costco...it's hard to try and coax a taxi driver to climb our hill with a car full of groceries and supplies, and the cost of buses and taxis adds up, not only monetarily, but time-wise too. Our fears about this purchase would be: buying a car that breaks down often and not being able to sell it for what we got it for (or close to what we got it for). We have looked at several so far. Some were just junk...we found one possibility but the papers for it ended up being dirty...there was another possibility after that where the car ended up needing more work (suspension, shocks, etc..). Right now a guy at church has a friend who might have a '96 Golf for sale within our price range. We hope this will be a good match for us, but don't even know if it's really for sale. We are just asking for your prayers that God would help us find a good car in that price range, or that He would make it clear that a car isn't in His will.
Anyway, that's all for now. We know that God is in control and has such wonderful plans for us while we're here. We appreciate you checking in!
Joel and Leslie
3 comments:
A nice entry, Leslie; very complete. It sounds like Water Camp will be fun and productive. Will the children be housed over night for this event, or will they just show up each day? It is fabulous that your Nursing training is being called upon, just as you hoped and had envisioned. I'm sure your mother remembers well when one of our daughters fell and bit through her lip, and broke out a baby tooth. That was before my time, but I have heard the story countless times; pretty scary stuff. Doing some work with a whole family should be rewarding as well.
Gosh, your rest periods at Sayulita really do sound incredible. You make me hungry talking about those home made tamales in a bucket. Are you getting your tan back?
Knowing that you "need" a car for transportation, and yet trying to find one that you can resell when it is time to come home, must be stressful. It has to run good enough to pull your hill fully loaded, and do all your running around. I have always believed that a car, or an old truck, or some kind of vehicle would be essential for you to do your mission work. Gosh, all those boxes of incredible clothing, and no way to transport them yet. That must be frustrating. Older vehicles can be so touchy. Even if you had bought one up here and tried to drive it down there, or bought one in Arizona, or New Mexico, it is a long drive down to where you two are, and breakdowns might have happened. We do hope that a "vehicle" makes its appearance for you soon. It would be licensed in Mexico. I guess you would have to find some form of insurance on it.
Today does sound like a very domestic day for you, after your play day on Saturday. You have set up a second home there in your apartment, and of course, some maintenance is required. We still have not had a chance to look at the pic disc sent over by Jeanne and Bob. We are looking forward to that.
Love: Glenn & Melva :)
udedbI know that there are many more folks checking in silently. The blog will not take a comment without registering, and that is as far as some are willing to go. Just to encourage you that there are others who care about you and what you are doing for the LORD, but it is your parents who are first in line to cheer you on....and that is a good thing!
Leslie, if you willingly ate food sold out of a bucket at the beach, you have successfully overcome the taco stand experience. What a difference a month makes.
Jkelldesign@yahoo.com or mangochic9@aol.com are the emails for making a comment privately.
Hey you two, it sounds like everything is really coming together, and you have your set schedule now. :)
Hopefully everything works out with the whole car situation... That would be a whole roller coaster of yes's, no's and maybe's for me if I were in your place. I will be praying for God to give you peace at the outcome.
We miss you guys, and I know that Mo has a week off for spring break, so (Lord-willing) that would be awesome to get down there and see you (if you have the time & we can get tickets)! You really need to see how big Ava is getting! She can say soooo many words now, can run fast, "jump" (her body looks like she's jumping, but her feet don't leave the floor. It's hilarious!), and even tries to stand on her head like Papa does when he breakdances!!
Btw, your view is gorgeous! Do you see the whales from your balcony, or is it when you go to the beach to bodyboard? I couldn't watch the video because my computer is stupid, just in case the answer's obvious...
Anyways, I really hope to see you soon and do some much needed catching up. We love and miss you! Love- Mo, Barbi and Ava
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