Amigos de Ysleta

Amigos de Ysleta is a new adventure to help create sustainable funding for YLM. It is a program that is almost exclusively run by regional leaders to take some fundraising things of the already busy staff. There are several phases planned, but the first phase recently rolled out in Colorado in connection with a Mariachi San Pablo concert. The first phase is to seek out monthly donors with a minimum contribution of $10.00 each month from a bank account or credit card. Plans are underway to roll this program in other regions, and implement other ideas. Once one becomes an Amigo, they will receive a special password for the Amigos store, where they will be able to get Amigos gear that is made exclusively for Amigos.

For more information, check out www.amigosdeysleta.org or www.joinamigos.org

Mission Trips

When most people think of a mission trip, they think about going somewhere (like YLM) to serve. The mission trips I am speaking of involve Erin and I leaving the mission to talk about it. You may remember my previous blog about going to Canada, and now we have another trip to Wisconsin scheduled.

You may remember Erin's winning photograph through LCMS World Mission's facebook page. Well, part of the winnings were hosting a mission fair. Since hosting such a fair at San Pablo may be futile, we asked a church in West Bend Wisconsin (St. John's) if they would like to host one. They accepted and they actually usually hold their own the Sunday after Easter. So we will get to have a YLM table at their mission fair, and then later that evening, we will be doing a Mexican Fiesta dinner, and speak about YLM in the hopes of generating excitement for them to send another team here.

Since West Bend is near Chicago, and Erin is able to do some LBT stuff there, I am going to tag along and check out a city I have never been to for a couple days. Hopefully, I will get to see some friends from St. Paul Mt. Prospect, who was here last week (blog coming soon), and enjoy the sights of a new city for a couple days. Please pray that the trips go well and for safe travels.

Catching Up

I know it has been forever since I posted a blog, but I will admit it has not been high on my priority list. When adding school to an already busy schedule, sometimes things have to get put on the back burner and unfortunately, this was one of them. I apologize to my three faithful readers, and hope to be back on track soon. The good news is I have a list of many blogs I want to write, so hopefully this will motivate me to do so.

This spring has been busy with servant events and getting ready to launch a new program called amigos de Ysleta. Blogs about these are forthcoming. Erin and I have two mission related trips coming up in April, and blogs about these are on the way as well. New YLM website is launched, make sure to check it out and enjoy all the new things on there.

Once again, sorry to be gone for so long, hope to have many new thoughts up soon. Off to do stuff for the Hinchey scholarship so I can mail it on Monday. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

The Great White North

So normally people tell me they are going to do things, and more often than not I am left to be disappointed. This is one thing that has always driven me nuts, because I am a big believer in doing what you say you are going to do. Even if is hurts, if you say you are going to do something, you should follow through because someone may be counting on you, or expecting something.

Yesterday, my faith in that was restored. We had talked with one of the pastors from the Canada group about going up there to talk about the mission at their youth fundraiser, and even at the Canadian Seminary. Yesterday, Pastor James called and asked us how our calendar looked for April 13th to 18th. It was open, so he is now getting us tickets to come talk about the mission to the Canadian Lutherans. Super Excited.

One day we are going to the seminary to talk the students, then have a meeting with a group that is coming in May. Another day, we will do touristy stuff and go to the West Edmonton mall, which I guess is bigger than the Mall of America. That would put me at the 2 biggest malls in North America in less than a year. FUN!!. On the Sunday, we will be speaking at 3 services at the church and helping work the Youth Fundraiser for their annual trip here. Can't wait, really excited.

We are slowly coming out of Snowpocalypse. Water emergency and rolling blackouts are over, but there is still a shortage of plumbing parts in town as everyone is trying to fix broken pipes. We got some from Teri who stopped at a store in Roswell to bring them on Saturday when they came for the baptism of Alivia. Good call. Hopes are to have building 5, 13, and the main line where the pressure regulator done today. Check out the picture below of the plumbing aisle at Lowe's on Sunday, 3 days after most of the popular things were sold out. And of course there is a super cute picture of Viviana crashed out on Erin's lap with a sucker in her hand. Have a great week, stay warm through the next chill coming tonight. Lucky for El Paso, this one is going to just miss us to the east.

Unsuccessful

Remember in my last post, I talked about starting to read the 900 page Don Quixote? My goal for the weekend was to finish it, and then be able to put up a blog saying I finished. No such luck. I got sidetracked with other things, but I have finished one third of the novel, so maybe a couple more weeks and I will be done.

Hope everyone is staying warm during this snowpocalypse.

Snowpacalypse as defined in the Urban Dictionary:

A weather condition in which the amount of fallen snow, while not really such a big deal, wreaks havoc on a city, effectively shutting it down and leaving its citizens stunned and unable to see any sign of hope or a return to normalcy. It's perceived much like the aftermath of a nuclear event, but really... it's just freakin' snow!!

Learning New Things

So far this has been a year of learning new things for me. Most of them have been computer related, since I am a digital immigrant. First, Erin taught me how to do all kinds of cool stuff on publisher, so I can make neat things now for school assignments, and my youth classes, and other things. Then, for a school assignment, I had to make some shapes and lines for a genogram project, and of course I did not know how to do that, so I asked the resident digital native (Erin), and 15 minutes later I was making boxes and circles, inserting text boxes, changing the shading and fill of these text boxes, drawing lines, it was sweet. Then, after I got the project back, my professor told me that I had done one of the best genogram projects she had seen in all her years of teaching. YAY!!!!

We are also changing our website to combine our current news site, and regular website into one. This past week there has been a lot of adding pictures and content, so naturally when I needed to figure out how to add a page, or a picture, or a next generation gallery, it was time to learn again. I have a lot of notes, but I am starting to remember things. Hopefully all the English content will be done by early next week, then it needs to be translated into Spanish and we can launch it. Hopefully it will be up SOON!!. I can tell you, it is pretty cool.

I have also learned school stuff. About stressors, and step families, and violence in families. Lots of stuff about family systems. This class ends Monday, and then Tuesday starts the next class called Family Decision.

Since I like to read, and I feel like I have been neglecting The Essential Man's Library, I started to read Don Quixote last night. All 902 pages of very small print of the unedited one. Any guesses on how long that will take me?

Well I am off to work on a web page about the Christmas distribution stuff. Have a fantastic week.

Here's to a New Year

Happy New Year to everyone. Well, 2010 is now in the books, and it had it's high points (Mediterranean Cruise, starting school), and it's low points (recent health issues), but instead of dwelling on the negatives of the past, my resolution is to try and look at the glass being half full this year. This has not always been a quality I possess, and it is in my nature to be pessimistic, probably so I am not disappointed, but working on being more positive can only help right?

To give you a brief look into the health things that came up, I went in for a cough that would not go away, and we found out my blood pressure was high (runs in the family), so we started some medication for that. The doc also ordered some blood work, where we saw my cholesterol was a tad bit high (172, supposed to be 100), started some meds for that, and the clincher was when the doc told me I had type II diabetes. I am only at 8%, and I should be under 7%, so it is not crazy bad, but it is still diabetes. I had to go in for an eye thing to check them for diabetes, and then an abdominal ultra sound for other stuff, and I just feel like I have been to the doctor A LOT the last few weeks. Currently I am having to take diabetes classed, and have two more left, and then maybe no more doc stuff for a few weeks. I hope. Anyway, I would appreciate your prayers that I am able to do the things I need to for my health.

The year ended with some snow while working in Anapra with a group from Mayer MN building three houses, and as I said, I am trying to be more positive about things and not get upset so easy. I think I am doing ok, but it is hard to judge myself. Lot's of things to do in the office and all of our winter friends and their RV's are arriving so we will have a lot of activity and people here at the mission.

School stuff started back up this week, and I am almost done with the third class of my cohort, and have 3 more before summer break. I plan to do some CLEP testing this summer to get some more of the elective and general education credits I need so I can be on target with finishing in December of 2012, wow that is next year, and walk in the graduation ceremony in May of 2013. I really like how this cohort flows, and LOVE the fact I do not have any tests, just a bunch of papers to write, some of which I hope to finish this weekend.

Still teaching youth class at San Pablo, and am hoping to get more involvement and attendance up. I really want to get a whole youth group started, but it is slow going. Miguel and I are planning on taking our classes to Incredible Pizza, and maybe this can be a launching point. I am searching for new material for class, and hopefully have found a couple good things I can use for a few weeks at least.

I guess that is enough rambling for now, I am waiting on the leader from Mayer to send me a dvd of pics and I can share some of those in another blog soon. If you want to get an idea of that week, check out Erin's blog.

Happy New Year.