Other things I saw in MN

I actually saw more than I have pictures of, I just didn't really take any other pictures except for the morning Jim took me on the campus tour. I went out to dinner with Krysia's parents (Tim and Cheryl) and another person who came on the servant event with them, Jan, after going to Saturday night services at Messiah Lutheran Church in Lakeville. We went to this really good Italian place, and had a blast. Jan cracks me up, and she was all kinds of fired up still because someone painted a smiley face on her butt when the servant event was here in January, so she was blaming Erin, and I kept telling her I had no knowledge. She took that to mean I was trying to protect Erin, so she blames her. We also had fun messing around with the server, and the four of us split the most GINORMOUS piece of carrot cake I have ever seen. It was good.

I also went to a potluck at King of Kings in Roseville. They sent a group down last summer, so we all got together and ate and chatted. It was fun. The last remaining piece of free time was spent at the Mall of America. It was cool, and BIG, but I guess I was thinking it would be bigger. We just walked one lap around the lower level, and then went to the stores I needed to go buy stuff at. Perhaps it was as big as I thought, but just seemed different because the Cielo Vista mall is not anywhere near round or square, so you have to go down all these different ways to get anywhere, so it seems like you are walking forever because you can't find the store you want. That is probably it.

Enjoy the pics. I'll try to get one more up before the big trip.

Vivi picture, she is floating in the dorms

Capitol building. The one in Denver is better because it's dome is covered in GOLD!!

Downtown St. Paul skyline

St. Paul's Cathedral

It was really big

The top of the door

Um, so yea,

My "school"

I am sure most of you know that I am enrolled in college again. I am pursuing my degree in Family Life Education, and upon completion, I will be a CFLE or Certified Family Life Educator. After that, the plan is to do a DCE colloquy and focus on youth ministry. The FLE program offers a myriad (Erin's favorite word) of opportunities in all areas of educating the family, from childhood to late adulthood, so that is great that there are so many areas to be effective in, and even better that there is a certification and a national group called the NCFR or National Council of Family Relations.

I went to Minnesota from the 15-21 to have orientation on campus and do some of the first class: Intro to Family Life Ed. After the classes and seeing the schedule and syllabus, I am going to be busy, but I am super excited. I look forward to gaining knowledge and experience and becoming better at what I do. I will actually be creating an online portfolio as well, and I have already started it, but it is just silly right now and doesn't really have anything on it. Maybe as I go, I will let you see it.

Working on getting the newsletter out this week, a big grant proposal, and a bunch of other stuff. I am off to do some reading for class on Monday. Enjoy the pics and have a great weekend.

Obligatory goddaughter picture, she found a candy bar

Cohort BA836: Family Life Education

Concordia University St. Paul

Bookstore

Library

More Library

Chapel

Inside chapel

More inside chapel

Student and Family housing

Dorms

Outside area

More outside area. I think there are more trees on campus than in my entire zip code

Gym

Pretty good team

Being a good student

Supplied for School

Every year at the end of the summer, the mission does a school supply distribution. Not only here in. El Paso, but backpacks are supplied to all of the sites across the border. This year, according to Elvira, who is in charge of the program, 1305 backpacks were distributed. All of this is made possible because of donations. Someone may send a box of school supplies, someone else a few backpacks, or a Sunday School class may collect cash offerings and send it down to purchase needed items.

Each backpack comes with:

Notebooks

Pencils

Glue

Crayons

Markers

Notebook paper

Folders

Scissors

Ruler

Health/Hygiene kit.

Some pictures are below. I send prayer requests as I travel to Minnesota this week for the start of my Family Life Education degree. The cool thing I found out is that it is going to be like 60 degrees all week, and that is awesome because it is still HOT here, and I am about tired of sweating. I also found out I will get to put letters after my name if/when I graduate. CFLE. I will tell you what those mean later.

Obligatory Viviana picture. Since I took this picture and sent it to Mom, and Mom put it on her phone as wallpaper, the Rockies have not lost. I asked Elvira to put Vivi in her Broncos gear tomorrow for a picture.

Part of the line

Rest of the line

Elementary school backpacks

Secondary School backpacks

Dora, Elizabeth, Nadia. You may remember them from some previous blogs (they received a couple additions to their home.

Happy Helpers

Hi Mrs. Palma

A truly international event

The last and biggest group of the summer came from Canada. They brought 28 people from Edmonton, and this is the third time I have gotten to work with them. They are a great, fun group and we always have a good time ending the summer season with them. This year, they broke into 3 different work groups and conquered 3 projects. Part of the group went to Santisima Trinidad and built a new warehouse for Pastor Hernandez to store his things for his distributions. A small group went to San Elizario and put in a new ceramic tile floor for a San Pablo church member, and the balance went to Sparks and built a house for a needy family. The Terrazas family was living in a gulfstream type trailer, which is smaller than a typical house we build, and we were able to more than double their living space. This is very similar to the trailer that Mayra lived in, that was fixed by a group from Our Father over Thanksgiving and who has since received a home, and bathroom kitchen addition. The Terrazas family may be inline for a bathroom/kitchen addition in the future as well.

Many thanks to those from Canada, and there is a rumor they may have Erin and I come up there for their mission Sunday when they do a big fundraiser for their trip so we can talk about the mission. I hope Erin has a BIG, THICK, WARM coat.

Also, to those of you from OFLC that read this blog, part of the Thanksgiving group (if it is really big) may get to tear down the tool shed at Santisima and get it ready to build a new one.

Check out the pics and have a blessed week. I am off to Minnesota next week for some school stuff. Nervous and excited at the same time.

Obligatory Viviana picture. Want some wings?

Cut team at the El Paso house

Liquid nails on the first wall

Maria fed us almost every day, but Kevin got all the watermelon

Mangoes with all the fixin's

My truck tool box needed to be organized, this is post organization. I can now find things.

Kelsey going to town on the organizing

If you click on this picture, you can see that it says Chris is responsible for this wall, but actually, Erin hang that sheetrock. I hung the ceiling drywall, so I claim no responsibility.

Paint team

Jonathan giving her the keys

Checking it out

Nice cross addition from Pastor James

Tiling one of the bedrooms

living room tiled and grouted

hallway

the girls in the room they did all by themselves

bathroom

kitchen, you can't see it, but there are some sweet curved cuts up against the counter

that's the border fence down the street from the tile house. Not zoomed in. I didn't realize she lived so close.