TODAY'S NUMBERS...SO FAR

7 breakfasts made and eaten
2 cups of power inducing coffee in this mama
2 lunch kits bought
2 pencil cases bought
10 pencils bought
5 bags of groceries bought
2 boy's runners bought for school
2 boy's goggles for swimming lessons bought
(sensing a theme here today??)
1 boy currently having a nap
1 girl currently having a nap
1 boy being taken out for one-on-one lunch with dad today
1 load of laundry done
3 emails sent
1 budget updated
1 boy's birthday party supplies bought
4 shelves for boy's room hung

As you can see, it's a bit of a catch up day here today. We took some time away for our anniversary last week and then we had Bible study and ministry this weekend, so today we are stocking up on groceries and getting some things that the boys will need for school, that starts in just 2 weeks!

The Nappers

EVERYDAY ENCOUNTERS

Ongoing discipleship and investment into people's leaves means meeting them where they are at, and this often includes meeting up with those we mentor, disciple, and invest in through everyday activities. 

Like helping our co-workers find a puppy and taking them to a church member's house who hasn't been attending for a while. Her dog just had puppies, so they get a puppy and we get to encourage someone who has been struggling lately.

And like checking out a big new sports store to look for a few things we need, but going to that one specifically because we heard it's good but also because one of our church members started working there. We were able to brighten his day and show some interest in his life, as he had been hinting at us to come visit him there.

And like walking with the kids to the local park and meeting up with a neighbor who, after meeting our 2 kiddos, shared that her and husband have wanted another child for many years and looked into adoption but hadn't been able to find information on how to go about it. I was able to encourage her to take that step and sent her the phone number to call.

And like having two of my ladies Bible study ladies and their kids over for lunch so that the kids could play, giving us an opportunity to meet together outside of a Bible study time. This leads to different topics and types of conversation. 

And out of that meeting we were also invested in! One of the ladies heard me commenting on us thinking about needing a bigger fridge with more kids (our fridge is a basic, small fridge) and she said she had just been asking God to show her who to give her fridge to. So her and her husband decided to give us their side-by-side fridge that needed a bit of repair. We repaired it and now we have a bigger fridge. What a blessing to be invested in and cared for as well.

WE HAVE OUR 2 KIDS (+3) UNDER OUR ROOF!!

We are still in a little shock and awe, but we now have our 2 kids that we are in process of adopting living with us!!

I know we said just recently that it seemed like the process of visitations with our little boy, Salomón, would be another few months, based on what we were being told as far as process, but last week it was decided that he was ready and that it was best for him to come. It came as a very, very welcome surprise to us.

So we had a few days notice that he would be coming, which we took advantage of by moving beds around and setting up room for his clothes in the boy's closet, and then we waited and got a call Monday afternoon to pick him up in an hour! The 4 boys are together in one room and Sofía has her own room. Not because she is spoiled! 😅 but because he is used to sharing with many boys (and our 3 boys have always shared a room) and we felt it would make him more comfortable.

We are so thankful for the people involved in working with him and the process and we are so thankful to God for bringing the two siblings back together and for them becoming part of our family 💓 Of course it is hard for him as it's a huge transition (he is 4) but we are amazed at how well he is doing. 

                              

Now, they are not officially adopted yet - that will take a while yet as there is more paperwork to do. But in our hearts they are ours. Our boys are aware of the dynamics and we talk together about how while they are with us, they are our family and we love them as such. And the boys have been so amazing with both of the kids! They are proud to tell people that they are part of our family.

My prayer for Salomón and Sofía. That One is God.

JULY FRIENDS AND EVENTS

The end of June and the beginning of July always bring a lot of wrap-up parties and events with friends.

And living in Mexican culture means inevitable going to a lot of parties! People here love to get together and it's always a lively time. That said, we've been able to form closer friendships and connections with those at these parties by getting together one-on-one and in smaller groups, which is where those deeper conversations tend to happen.

So, here are some group shots from events in the past few weeks!

Carter with friends at a 1st communion party. Most of his friends are from traditional Catholic families and the 1st communion happens between the ages of 8-11.

Some of the parents at the 1st communion party - Dallas was taking the picture.

Carter was invited to a friend's house for a day and they went out to find a place to fly their drone. This is one of Carter's best friends since kindergarten.

The moms at Carter's 5th grade grad party!

And the dads at the party.

Those are just a few, as most of our pictures have our little girl in them! She is always with Dallas or I and so ends up in a lot of our pictures and therefore I have to pick and choose :) 

And here is one more of the boys with friends. All 3 of our boys are currently at a nearby Bible camp for the week, and based on the few pictures we've been sent, I know they're having a great time. This is Logan and Brady's cabin, and Carter is in a separate cabin. This year Carter had 2 friends go with him and Logan had 4 friends go, so this is a neat way for them to invite their friends to hear about and experience a week of God's love being taught and lived out. 

With the boys being gone this week, we have our little girl here with us and tomorrow our little boy comes to visit. The house is a lot quieter...and a lot cleaner!...less cooking going on here, that's for sure. But we've been able to get quite a bit done, some extra coffees and meetings in with contacts, organizing in the house, Dallas other work, so it's been a good week.

A WEDDING

Last weekend Dallas had the privilege of marrying Jesse and Paulina!

Paulina's family joined our church here in Guadalajara 6.5 years ago; they were the first family to become part of our church plant here. Several years ago she began expressing an interest in serving God through missions work and so made plans to attend Bible College, and after checking into a few, decided on Steinbach Bible College in Canada.

Just a few months before she left, we happened to have a Missions Intern, Jesse, come down for 9 months to work with our team, and long story short, Jesse and Paulina began dating and are now married!

As they are living in Canada right now, the wedding was there and Dallas flew up for the weekend to be part of the celebration. We would all have LOVED to have been able to go but it didn't work out and that's ok. My cousin, Faith, who was at the wedding, sent me picture throughout and I enjoyed seeing it from afar. 

Paulina's family are quite involved in our church plant and it's encouraging to see the way God works in growing people in faith and maturity, and we enjoy working with and enjoying life with them!

As a bonus, Dallas also got to see 3 of our brothers on this weekend! He landed in Calgary, Alberta and was picked up by and stayed with one brother and family for night. Then he borrowed their car and drove a few hours to stay with my other brother and family for a couple of nights. Then one night he discovered that his brother who lives in BC happened to be holidaying right where Dallas was and so he got to see him as well. So that was all bonus. Thanks, boys, for taking care of Dallas :)

A Field Trip for the kids means a Field Trip for the moms

It's that time of year again where all of the classes go on one last field trip to finish off their time in the grade they're in. Since all 3 of our boys are in elementary still, the moms are invited to come along and help chaperone the group. 

I have gone on many field trips over the years, mostly to the zoo as that's the one I enjoy signing up for. We have one of the best zoos here in Guadalajara! 

So today I went along with Carter's grade, which is grade 5. I must say, I enjoyed this grade more than the younger grades. Not because of the kids! But because this age is just so much more independent and you don't need to worry quite so much about someone going missing by accident. 

Only 6 of us moms went along on the trip, but they happen to be 6 that I enjoy being with a lot from this grade, so we had just as much fun as the kids did. Most of these ladies I've known since Carter was in kindergarten, so 6 years now.

There is a Safari that you go on as well and I gave my phone to Carter for this so he could get some pictures.....he was one of the few that did not have their own phone along (as he does not have one!) and he felt a little left out. But I told him that I think he can enjoy seeing things much more without having to see it all through a video on a little screen the whole day and he was fine with that.

I know at this age they like to fit in...and that's a balance we're working through, in knowing what to allow our kids to have and do to not feel "out" of things but also helping them be human beings that are happy even without a screen! It's a hard one in this day and age where 10 years old are taking phones everywhere.

So anyway, the following pictures are from Carter :)

To finish off the day we also went on the Sky Zoo which is a slow meandering ride over top of the zoo.

A few other things I learned today:

1. Our kids will need to learn what are good thing to take pictures of if they plan on having the privilege of using my phone once in a while. In other words, taking pictures of certain animal parts or of ostriches mating is maybe not the best choice ;) Yes, I know, everyone else took the same pictures.

2. One mother (not pictured) shared with me many the different ways there are to cross into the US without being detected, even today with all of the security.

3. Carter has good friends! Yes, really! I love seeing him with them and I love that he (and his brothers) have invited many to a local Bible camp this summer and today 2 mothers confirmed that they will send their kids with Carter and 4 confirmed that they will send their kids with Logan! Our kids are influencing their friends whether they know it or not. Pray for these kids and their parents that we continue to rub shoulders with.

Grandpa Harder's passing

Just over a week ago, my Grandpa Harder passed away. It was quite sudden and it's still hard to believe that it actually happened.

I was able to go to Canada for 6 days to be with family and to be part of the funeral, which I am SO thankful for. Being far away can make things not seem real when they happen over there and I know it was part of the good-bye process for me to be able to be there in person. I also am grateful to have been there with all of my brothers and be able to support my mom and my Grandma, and uncles.

I just want to share here the tribute that I shared at the funeral on behalf of my brothers and I.

The first memories I have of Grandpa are from when he and my Grandma came to visit us on in Paraguay where we were growing up as missionary kids. Even though we lived far away from each other for several years, we always knew that he loved us grand kids and knew him as a grandpa full of kindness, eager to help anyone he could, with interest and knowledge in a wide range of topics, and with a genuine appreciation and joy for life. We also saw his love for serving others and God, which was evidenced in him singing and playing the guitar and harmonica in church while visiting us and his joy in building the staircase at the mission property for us, which still stands 25 years later.

Several years later when we had moved back to live in Kleefeld, we spent many days and Sunday dinners at his and Grandma’s house. He was good at so many things and he always allowed us to learn what he knew by doing and experiencing, not just by hearing about it – he showed us how to use the many tools in his shop to build different things, how to work his riding lawn mower, how to play golf, how to make the perfect juice for Sunday dinner, and how to appreciate playing music, among many other things. We also spent many hours hearing his stories about his growing up years, playing dominoes, having wiener roasts, watching golf, attending football and hockey games, and just learning from his life and his example of faith in God.  

As we grew older, we appreciated even more things about Grandpa. We saw the way he continued to volunteer and serve his whole life and learned from his commitment to his family and to his church. We also appreciated greatly the way he always gave us words of encouragement and affirmation to make sure we knew that he was praying for us, that God was with us, and that we were valued by him. He also gave this same love and encouragement to all of our kids, his great-grandchildren, who loved him just as much. Even though they are young and have never lived in the same town never mind the same province or country, they have many good memories of their time with Grandpa because of the efforts he took to make sure he had a close relationship with them. He had a way of making you feel cared for even in a short amount of time. Each person that came into his home felt welcome and felt his hospitality, which included good food but also a genuine care for you as a person.

We will miss our Grandpa a lot and thinking of him makes me smile through the tears because of the person he was. We don’t need to be sad for him and all that he’ll miss here on earth, because where he is in a place with so much more joy than we can even imagine. But I know that doesn’t mean that we won’t be sad as we think of being without him, so let’s encourage each other and be there for one another in the same way that he taught us to do in the many years that we had with him here.

I went to a ladies retreat - THRIVE 2018

6 months ago, some fellow missionary women here in Guadalajara told me about an organization called Thrive.

Thrive is an organization that ministers to missionary women working in cross-cultural settings and they put on 4 day spiritual retreats all over the world. They have divided the globe into regions and they make sure they go to each region at least one time every two years, and now in April they were coming to Puerto Vallarta.

There are a few women that run the ministry and then volunteers sign up to come as well. The volunteers are made up of professional counselors, those that want to come to pray and encourage, a couple of hair stylists and massage therapists, and those that want to come and serve in any way.

And get this, they raise all of the funds for all of the missionary women! Meaning that in order to attend, we had to pay a minimal registration fee and get ourselves there. The rest of the stay was completely covered by donars.

I am so thankful for this opportunity to attend and that I got to go! We have had several months, half a year, of non stop busyness and I have been feeling that I haven't had the space to process life recently and spend that extended time resting in God. The speaker that came spoke on topics that we KNOW to be true, but that sometimes we forget to believe.

God is Sovereign

God is Good

God is Love

It was a timely retreat for me.

I also enjoyed so much the times of discussion. We were split into small groups that we spent much of the time with in discussion and prayer. This was my group, made up of 2 leaders and missionary women from all over Mexico. 

I also enjoyed spending time with fellow missionary from Guadalajara, Melissa, who I went there with and who I roomed with. We don't get together a lot with missionaries from other agencies here so it was nice to have a longer to visit as well.

I also enjoyed meeting women in other cities of Mexico and building friendships with them. Everyone there is working cross-culturally so we "get" each other. It was interesting too to play the "Mennonite game" and make connections! One knew my brother and sister-in-law from language school in Texas. One was the niece of my mom's friend in Canada. One knows some of our friends from the States.

Thrive also works in between retreats offering their services to missions agencies by offering mentoring, coaching, and counseling over Skype to women that work cross-culturally. They have such a good handle on the needs of missionary women and I would encourage missions agencies to take advantage of this ministry as another member care tool!

So, I wish I could go every year :) Recharges the batteries. 

Thankfully, God is here right with us where we all are and amidst the busyness of life we need to work hard at carving out time for him each day, week, month, year. Our circumstances can overtake our minds but I want God overtaking my thoughts before anything else.

9 days with our home church youth group!

For the week leading up to Easter, we hosted our youth group from our home church in Canada - Kleefeld EMC.

There were 9 youth and 5 leaders and we looked forward to it a lot as we know all of the leaders and knew it would be a great week together! The leaders include those that mentor us (our pastor) and that we have mentored (our previous youth) and that we currently mentor (Paulina, from our church here in Gdl but who is studying at Steinbach Bible College in Canada and attending our home church there, and who Dallas will be performing the wedding ceremony for in July!). It's neat to see the way different generations and groups of people can work together.

Our house was the central command station for all things food and debrief related ;) Our house is small but thankfully, youth don't care about cramming! 

We are so thankful also for those that helped us in planning and running the week, including those in our cell groups, we couldn't have done it without them! They helped drive the youth around, inviting their friends and people they're reaching out to to the different outreach event, and hosting with us. We are excited when we see the local believers working together.

The day they arrived, we did a bit of orientation and then spent some time in prayer for the upcoming week. That evening we put on a youth event, where we and our cell groups invited contacts to come out for a Cultural Event. Youth events here often mean anyone is welcome, and we had from little kids up until parents of the youth.

We did a bit of a talent show, music, played hockey, and had pizza together. Our prayer is that those that were invited will have come away with a positive view of Christians and that this can prompt conversations with those that invited them.

 

The next day was Palm Sunday and we took the group out to Los Chorros de Tala, which is a natural park with a waterfall, a creek, and a swimming pool. Some from our cell group went as well and we had a service there at the park and then spent the day together. 

For Monday we planned a Kid's Club here in our gated community and had a few of our kid's school friends come out, plus some from here in our community. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures as I was in charge and it went by quickly :) We also had some down time that afternoon and then spent some time in prayer looking over the city of Guadalajara from 2 high places. 

Tuesday they headed to downtown Guadalajara for our traditional Picture Scavenger Hunt that we do with teams that come! They split into groups and were given a list of things to find and to take pictures of. This included touring the Catholic Cathedral, visiting some historical buildings, and touring a typical market. 

Later in the evening we had one of Paulina's friends come and share about the traditional Catholic pilgrimage that is happening right now, that he took part of. This is a path that people walk for two days in order to spend time in prayer to the Virgin of Talpa, the town they walk to. 

After the first number of days in the city and exposure to urban life and ministry, we took the group to the Orphanage Ranchito Con Eperanza (Little Ranch with Hope), where they spent the next 4 days. I know this was a big highlight for many of them, as they were able to do several types of ministry. Some worked on the farm feeding cows and harvesting honey, some worked in pouring a cement floor, some helped with peeling and cutting tons of fruits and veggies, and some read and did activities with the kids. This is the Orphanage that Dallas and I and our cell groups volunteer at regularly and where our little girl is from.

 The orphanage is in a small town an hour out of the city and as the only Christian influence there, they periodically put on Kids Clubs and invite the town kids. One afternoon we did this with them and they had 30 kids come out in addition to the 23 they have at the orphanage. 

 And, one of the days while they were at the orphanage, Dallas and I skipped out and attended a wedding! We did pre-marital counseling with a young couple last summer and now they were getting married. Their parents are good friends of ours from our kid's school, as their younger son is in Carter's grade, so we had a table full of friends from school there to hang out with!

This is Karla, a mom friend who was one of the first I ever met here in Gdl almost 7 years ago! How time flies.

So, that was our week!! There are many stories to tell and I know that each person on the team would have different perspectives and stories. For us, we see the ministry opportunities and ways the team helped us with our ministry and reaching out to people. We see the ways people worked together and advanced God's kingdom.

It was also a tiring week for Dallas and I as along with the planning and running of the week, we had our 4 kids with us plus had Brady visit the hospital twice while they were here (he has a knee effusion, which we are still working on solving). But, we are thankful for the week and to God for working despite our weakness' and for giving us joy. Our prayer is that the week will be something the youth will look back on and remember the ways they were impacted and have this change them even in small ways, and that makes it all worth it!