Mission Needs, Can You Help?

In our staff meeting today, Pastor Tovar spoke of one of his mission sites in Chihuahua, San Esteban. There, he has about 20 children who are very interested in playing baseball. We are looking to support our mission site by gathering the needed equipment for them to begin their own little league. Please check your closets and garages for any extra gloves, bats, balls, helmets, bags, etc. and please send to me at the mission so I can get them to Pastor Tovar.

Additionally, at the end of august we will be holding our annual school supply distribution. We are looking to fill up over 1000 backpacks this year. Would you please prayerfully consider a donation of pencils, pens, notebooks, folders, glue, scissors, rulers, paper, markers, crayons, coloring pencils, etc. Or possibly consider sending a cash donation or gift card so we can purchase them locally. You can send those to my attention or Elvira.

Please send anything to:

301 S. Schutz Dr.

El Paso, TX 79907

May God bless you as you begin to enjoy the summer season.

Semester Summary

Well, my first semester is winding down. I just have 2 more psychology classes and the door closes on my semester. For those of you who don't know, these classes run a little different than traditional classroom style. We meet once per week in a chat room setting and then the other work is done in the form of papers and discussion board posts. These classes cover the same amount of material as a traditional setting, just without exams and with many more papers and posts, and in a quicker time frame. I guess that is why they call it the accelerated bachelor program. For example, I had literature class meet for 6 chats, did 3 papers and 6 discussion board posts, had to read 2 novels, 10 chapters of understanding poetry, 200 poems, and like 5 chapters of short stories. For this work, I received 4 credits, same as I would have in a traditional setting.

My actual cohort starts in September, when I must visit the campus for a few days to meet my advisor, classmates, and instructors. We will all be together in the online classes for the entire program, and then depending on our general education credits, we may all graduate together as well. I will then do the DCE Colloquy, and then be a DCE (I hope.) :). Depending on the cost of classes, financial aid, and my sanity, I may try and take some general education credits at the same time as the Family Life Education program, to help speed up the process. I am constantly looking for avenues of financial aid, so if you know anything, please let me know. I really hope to not have to pay off student loans for the rest of my life.

As far as the spring semester, I took 5 classes, Communication, College Writing, Contemporary Math, Literature, and Psychology. I have finished 4 of the classes and believe I have received 4 A's as my grades. Psychology will end next wednesday the 26th, and then on June 7th, American History I starts. This covers like the pilgrims through 1877 I think. I saw that American History II is offered starting in September and that covers 1877 to present. I hope to be able to take that class as well, but I have some other things in October that may prevent that. Hopefully it will work out to take it some time.

Thanks for all the prayers and support as I continue on this journey. who knows what will happen or where it will lead, (well, He does), and I will try and keep you all posted as I go.

Oh, one other thing, Erin has like 187654238 different Drury University things, so she wrote me a list of all the Concordia things I need to be equal with her, because I said I was going to get all that stuff, so we will see what the bookstore has when I am on campus and how much room my suitcase has. If you know anyone in the rental car business that would like to give me a discount for when I am in Minnesota, please let me know.

Blessings on your week.

Tortilla Training

Erin was messing around with this tortilla maker at the market one day, and our buddy who owns a shop there told her to choose one, so she did, and I got one too. As we were sitting outside enjoying a manzana lift while the group was shopping, I said that we should have Blanca Tovar give us a tortilla lesson when she comes up from Chihuahua City to record the tv program. Genius I tell ya. So this past thursday, we showed up with ingredients and our tortilla machine, and proceeded to get Tortilla 101. I had a pretty good idea how to make them from my years as a chef, but there is something about the way they taste when they are authentic, without preservatives or anything. Know what the secret is? LARD!!!! Tastes so good, and oh so bad for you, but we gotta have it. So we learned little tricks, like how many seconds to wait before pressing it, and how to make sure we can always have fresh tortillas if we want. Overall I would say it was a success. I am going to make some big MAN size tortillas soon for quesadillas, but these were perfect for fajitas and breakfast burritos. I would love to teach you, but I feel this should be kept a secret like the best pizza place, but perhaps Erin will let you in on the secret if you ask her. I would probably make them for you though, just can't give away the special secrets.

All that you need for tortilla goodness

Learning from a pro.

Little balls of dough ready to be rolled out after they rise for a bit under a Wal-Mart bag.

Not bad for Erin's first try.

We had fajitas, chips and homemade guacamole, and Spanish rice for dinner Friday night and breakfast burritos on Saturday morning.

Hanover Helpers

One of our summer volunteers from 2008, brought down a group from his school for a trip over their spring break. They are on a trimester system, so that is why the spring break was at the end of April. Last year, they built a house in Mexico, and this year's plan was to visit and do work at several mission sites. We were going to do the roof of building 5 on campus, paint the new youth room at Santisima Trinidad, paint the exterior of San Pedro & San Pablo, and finish the week laying some floor tile in the bathrooms at San Lucas in Anapra.

We did get the roof done, got some of the youth room painted, and boy, did we lay a lot of tile, just not where we planned. After a couple of particularly violent days in Juarez, and because we said we would take action as needed, we chose to keep the group stateside for Thursday and Friday. Nelson actually finished up the painting for us, and the tile will still be waiting for us later in San Lucas, the safety was more important.

So a very gracious member of the group chipped in to help buy some tile and we began laying new VCT vinyl tile in the dorms. The goal was to do the front room, but after that was finished on Thursday, another donation was made and the hallway was planned for Friday. This group was determined to finish what they started, and actually worked until 2AM on Saturday trying to finish. What little was left was finished up by Erin, Myself, and a couple youth from San Pablo that came the next day for the congregational servant event.

The group spent their arrival Saturday shopping, and enjoying a Mariachi San Pablo performance in San Elizario at the celebration of the real first thanksgiving. Go ahead, research it, you'll see. Before they could leave for the fun, they were very helpful in corralling a couple renegade dogs that continue to find ways to escape. Luckily, they knew Jason and Bobby from last year, so they went to them, and went to their yard.

Enjoy the pictures, happy Mothers Day to my mom, and all the mom's that read this blog, and don't forget to boycott Arizona.

Jason and Bobby, rounding up the fence jumpers, luckily there is no stupid law here that put the doggies in jail for illegally passing the fence.

Bobby with his buds.

Demo of number 5 roof

Lauren demoing Vicky's roof.

Sharon modeling some new boards we put in to replace rotted or damaged ones

Team shingle...by the end of the day, Bobby was a cutting pro

Ruby and Joana helping sand at Santisima. We had to do a little touch up before painting

Jason painting the trim Silent Delight. I have decided I am coming out with my own paint line called Man Paint. Colors such as football field green, medium rare steak red, and infield brown. I am tired of the silly color names like Silent Delight and Perfectly purple. grrrrrrrrrr

Roberto with a second coat of compound on the ceiling

I always have to leave my mark

Since they finished shingling by lunch, they helped out in the warehouse getting ready for Saturday's food distribution. Here they are shucking some sweet corn.

A bunch of little bags of beans that they broke down for each food basket.

Since we didn't go to the market, the market came to them. Bobby got a little carried away.

Cutting tile for the floor

Team tile

Erin spreading some VCT adhesive. Not as sticky as spray insulation

Working down the hallway.

The almost finished entryway. It now has cove base and a divider between the brown and white tiles.

San Pablo Servant Event

I have worked with several groups, but on April 24th, I worked with one from El Paso. Right here from San Pablo. We had organized one for the youth group on the 24th and then one for the whole congregation the following Saturday May 1st. On the 24, we woke up to a chilly, and not surprisingly windy El Paso morning. It has been windy a lot lately, and I am kind of over it. We met at the mission, had some breakfast burritos and headed out to Sparks where we fixed a roof that was damaged in one of the many wind storms I mentioned above.

As the day progressed, Erin came out to join us and lead the tar crew, although I expect that was her last time doing anything within 25 feet of tar. Another group from a church in Sparks was actually out doing some visiting of neighbors and they wasted no time asking if we needed help and jumping right in and getting dirty. After finishing up the roof, it was off to Peter Piper for some pizza and then home to clean up. Unfortunately the turnout was low for the congregational event the following week, so we just finished up some tiling in the dorm. More on that later. Have a great day.

Getting started

Chilly and Windy

Hanging some new fascia boards

Starting to roll out and secure the roofing felt

Some of the rafters were a little to long and had to be trimmed

That wasn't the easiest task

Allright, got it going now.

More of the roofing felt

Starting to come together. Recognize the home?

Having a little fun

Peter Piper was good, thanks Pastor for treating.