Another copy and paste. Thank you Erin for doing my blog for me again :)

Our first servant event since August was here last week, from St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Barrington, IL. They normally bring 20-25 people and do a medical clinic at one of Pastor Hernandez's (Pepe's) mission sites, but this year, they opted not to cross the border which reduced their team to just 5--all guys. We planned a project in Horizon City for them--Olga Reyes's roof/electric--but they still sent a check down so that Pepe's doctor friend who normally helps them out with their clinic could run one in their stead, the same week even. I thought that was a very cool idea, and I don't remember the exact numbers that Pepe's wife Blanca told me, but he saw somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 people in 5 days.

Barrington's week started off by crossing the border for church at Santisima on Sunday so that they could be there to celebrate Pepe's 20th anniversary as a Lutheran pastor--their church has been working with Pepe for several years now and they were NOT going to miss that. I'm glad we went too...I think Erin and I would have gone even if they hadn't wanted to! The service was PACKED! People came from ALL of the YLM Mexico mission sites to share in the celebration, and it probably didn't help that there was a baptism that day too, and communion. To help shorten things up there was a biography of Pepe instead of a sermon, during which I learned lots of things I didn't know about him. Who knew that he first felt God's call into the ministry at age 13 so he studied for many years to be a priest? It wasn't until after he married Blanca and met some of the other YLM staff members that he realized his true calling was to the Lutheran ministry...I could be biased but I think that was a good choice!

After the service, there was a party, of course. After a few song and dance performances by the combined youth from all our Mexico mission sites, Pepe called the whole group, Erin, me, Pastor Martinez, and Javier (pastors from Cristo Rey and San Lucas, respectively) up to the head table with his family and other close friends. He kept telling everyone that we got to eat first because we had a bridge wait ahead of us to get back to the mission! Once we finished eating it was starting to get dark so we needed to get going, but Blanca insisted that we eat some of the cake she made (there were 2, hers and one someone brought from a bakery), and since you can't say no to that she gave us some to-go plates!

Back at the mission, the guys told us that after talking to Pepe, they would prefer to work with him all week rather than in Horizon. Problem #1: there were already 71 bundles of shingles on Olga's front porch. Problem #2: we had been promising her for a couple weeks that she would get a roof (which was becoming a greater and greater priority since every time it rained water leaked through the cracks in the OSB and damaged the frame underneath) and her electric run. So, from then on out, the plan became put the roof on in 2 days and then go work with Pepe, and that's exactly what we did!

With the goal of meeting with Pepe on Wednesday morning in mind, Erin and the guys worked our tails off and gave Olga a darn good looking roof...in TWO DAYS! I did ALL the electric, and the rest of them shingled like crazy under the direction of their resident former roofer. Wednesday the group crossed the border to meet with Pepe/scout the project he wanted them to do, and Thursday and Friday their task became to build a porch at San Pedro y San Pablo--buying all their own materials out of pocket--which will provide extra space (and shade!) for Bible studies, meals, and clinics. Erin and I stayed back to finish up the electric on Wednesday and get some office work done the rest of the week. We also got to see Super Josh, one of the 2008 summer volunteers, for a couple days...he's roadtripping around the USA for a month before he starts 2 years of pilot training in MS. Anyways, the porch had been high on Pepe's priority list for awhile, so it was a total God thing that it got done last week--we had told him it wouldn't be completed until at least February! He plans to dedicate the porch on Reformation Day, Saturday, October 31. I don't know if I'll be able to make it since we have other Reformation stuff going on here at San Pablo, but it'll be a neat event for sure. Pepe has been talking for a long time about getting regular ministry going out there and this will bring them one step closer. The guys from Barrington were even talking about what it will be like in 10 or 20 years and remembering what Santisima used to be like...a concrete slab...so who knows?!? OK back to 2009...enjoy the pictures!

Cake #1

Cake #2

The kids all made him a sign that says, in English, "Congratulations Pastor Pepe!"

Enough partying...time to get to work--This house needs a lot of wire ran. Especially in the bathroom that goes in the 20 year old daughters room. ;)

Ken laying shingles.

It was important not to put too much weight on our toes so we wouldn't damage the courses (rows...in roofer speak) we had already laid. Dan's technique unfortunately didn't work, but it was too good not to take a picture of.

Dave, the group's leader, arrived late due to a funeral, but he literally got off the plane and got to work!

Even so, everyone who had been there all day thought it would be fun to stand around for awhile and watch him work!

More of God's Country, baseball style.

Another bonus copy and paste. Thanks again Erin:) I used to get fired up because she would always get her blogs up before me, but this is really kind of cool. Maybe next time I will get mine up first and she can steal mine.

Erin and I got back from our third trip to Colorado on Thursday evening. This was without a doubt Erin's favorite one, mainly because the purpose of our trip was because we had tickets to the ENTIRE Cardinals-Rockies weekend series! Before I get to the baseball, though, check out the cool looking storm we drove through on the way there! It really didn't rain very much on the highway but you could tell the mountains were getting slammed.

We also went to the U.S. Mint on Friday afternoon before the games. They don't allow photography, though...or a whole list of other stuff--pretty much you can bring your wallet and car keys...so I don't have any pictures, but we learned lots of cool tidbits about coins (paper money doesn't actually fall under the jurisdiction of the Mint, that's the Bureau of Engraving and Printing's job). It was interesting but I'm still not quite sure why it's apparently Denver's most popular tourist attraction though...it was CRAZY hard to get tickets!

Friday night was a fireworks game. Supposedly our seats were "fireworks obstructed," probably because they were under the overhang at the top of the stadium and they left the lights underneath it on, but as you can see we had a perfectly good view. We sat in front of a couple other Cardinal fans who were actually from NC so they just picked a team...Erin told them they made a good choice! It only took about half an hour for them to move everyone from centerfield ONTO the actual field so debris didn't fall on them, too.

THESE were our seats for Saturday night's game--LOTS of Cardinal fans were around us b/c we were right behind the Visitors' dugout. In Erin's opinion it was obviously the best of the 3 games too...because her team clinched the division even though it was the only game they beat the Rockies all year.

Sunday the whole family went--Ken, Carol, Stef, Mike, and Erin and I. Our seats were in right field this time, right next to the bullpens. There was a divider in between them though, but that is the visitors over there with all th trees and stuff' The Cardinals lost for the 2nd time in exciting fashion that series and 6 out of 7 for the year.

Below we can tell who was on the winners side :) (6-1 this year)

Monday and Tuesday we went bike riding around the Cherry Creek Reservoir, went to the movies, got some $1 scoops from Baskin Robbins, relaxed a lot, and worked a little, and then Wednesday, our last day, we drove up to Idaho Springs. We went there on our April trip too, and Erin loved it, so we got some more Colorado style pizza and toured a gold mine that we almost went to the last time but it was closed.



At the very end of the tour they give you a little baggie of sand and let you try your hand at panning for gold. Erin was very afraid she was going to lose all of hers in the water but she actually found a couple flakes!

This was inside the gift shop...I'm not really sure what we did...

I also went to the dentist on Monday. Krysia and Stephen recommended him, and he also knew Pastor Heimer...he offered to help us however he could so we're hoping he'll play in our golf tournament on Nov. 2 and maybe even sponsor a hole!

Happy Birthday Friends

I guess one of the good things about slacking on my blogs is that I can still them from Erin. Basically, we spend a lot of time together doing many similar things, and because she is a blog machine, I can just copy and paste hers, then change a few words and presto, I have a new blog. Thanks Erin. :)

I hadn't been to Chuck E Cheese since I was like 9...until a couple weeks ago.

One of the best things about my job is the relationships I get to build with the people we work with. Like, a lot of the times I think about how cool it is that when groups have to say goodbye to the families whose homes they worked on or the kids who attended their VBS at the end of the week, I will probably see them again in a few days or weeks. The family that exemplifies this to a T is the Moraleses, whose trailer in Sparks we have worked on extensively--you might even recognize the name because I write about them on here ALL the time ;) Anyways, both 3 year old Alejandra and 13 year old Joana had birthdays in September, so Erin and I took them and the Viramonteses (YLM's office manager Elvira and her family who also live in Sparks; their daughter Camila is the same age as Alejandra) to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate. I promised Alejandra that we would go not very long after we first befriended them, and I think she talked about "la pizza" EVERY time we saw them up until we actually went!

We wound up having a few more people than we bargained for join us...let's just say it was a good thing Erin brought the white van to go pick them up...but we learned our lesson and next time we'll say no when the people we're throwing the party for call the morning of and ask to bring "2" more people!

Erin made them a "special" joint birthday cake. I'll be honest and tell you that she accidentally added an extra cup of water to the batter, but she threw in some flour and a tiny bit of vanilla, and you couldn't even tell!

Alejandra blowing out her candles.

Then we re-lit them so Joana could blow hers out too!

We had some coupons that included tokens along with the pizza so everyone was able to play a few games...even Viviana (Chata's head is blocking her, but I am is holding her on the back of the seat...I think she might have been the only one looking AT the screen b/c the other 2 were laughing too hard!)!

It was pretty obvious to Erin and I that everyone LOVED the whole evening, and it felt great knowing that we were able to give them an experience they NEVER would have been able to have on their own!