Why do Missionaries go on Furlough (Home Assignment)?

I mentioned in my last post that we will be in Canada for a couple of months this winter. The purpose of this is for Furlough, or Home Assignment, as it's also often called.

We often get questions or just hear comments from people wondering what furlough is for, so I thought'd I'd just talk about a few of the purposes here to perhaps help clear up some questions you may have!

So, what is the purpose of Furlough?

1. Reconnect with Churches/Supporters

This has changed a lot in missions over the past 20 years or so. It used to be that there was no Internet - meaning no email, texting, Facebook, Skype, or any form of constant communication with people back in Canada. When I grew up in Paraguay even a basic phone call cost a fortune and I remember talking to our Grandparents for our birthdays and that was pretty much it.

These days we are in constant communication with people all over the world. This enables missionaries to be in more contact with their supporting churches which is very good. But it is still not the same as a personal, face-to-face conversation. When we're in Canada we share in different churches on weekends and during the week we take time to visit with individuals and families from our churches. We are responsible to our home churches and to the EMC Conference and so we need to be in communication.

We need people supporting us in prayer, financially, and emotionally, and there is nothing like being with someone in person to build that connection and friendship.

2. Reconnect with the Missions office

This basically means that we have meetings with our Board of Missions and this furlough we will also be attending a retreat for ministers. We also have a meeting with our home church's mission board as well as other connections and meetings with EMC personnel.

3. Rest & Renewal

It is always encouraging and renewing for Dallas and I to be able to spend time with people in Canada that support us - whether that be family, friends, or church people. It's an opportunity to be filled and supported in prayer and gives us fresh energy to return to the field. I wouldn't call this restful exactly as we fill our calendars pretty full with wanting to see everyone! Almost too much sometimes but we really love it and it is rejuvenating.

Allowing your brain a little break from another language and culture is also restful ;) Although we love Spanish and love Mexico it can be tiring to always be trying to figure out culture and language. This does go away to some extent over the years but can be present at different levels for different missionaries.

4. Reconnect with Family & Friends

Even though we are living away from all of our family, we love our family and it is so important to us to have good relationships with them and for our boys to know them. This requires visiting them. Again, in person!

This is what makes overseas missionaries different from those in ministry in their home country, as it means being away from ALL of your family (usually) and that is one of the more difficult aspects, no matter how old you are or what stage of life you're in.

Connecting with friends that "get" you is also very renewing and something Dallas and I both value very much. We connect with friends from years ago and with friends that we've made more recently in different ways as a result of teams, visitors, churches, etc.

5. Education

This is one that also has changed a lot with online studies! Dallas is so fortunate to be able to study most of his Masters online. However, he had to go to Canada for a week in October for an in-person class and he has portions of his class that he will be doing while we are there now in November and in January. This education is very helpful for our ministry while on the field.

6. Encouragement/Recruitment

Part of our job is also to encourage missions in churches and individuals, whether that be through financial giving, through helping churches become more interested in missions, or through encouraging others to consider overseas missions! This all falls under point #1 as well but it is more of a direct purpose in connecting in different places.

7. Taking care of Business

We take the opportunity to update any banking we need to do, take our driver's license pictures, have other financial meetings, buy items we can get cheaper there than here, doctor visits (although we do most of that in Mexico), any needed paperwork, etc. oh, and go to Ikea.

8. Culture learning ;)

I'll add this one for our boys. Going to Canada every few years helps the boys keep a connection with their "home" culture. They do not consider Canada their home, though. They have never lived there, besides Carter who lived there for just 1.5 years. To them, Canada is an awesome place to visit where they get to see Grandparents and cousins and everyone else! They love to visit.

And it's always a time of culture learning, especially now as they're getting older.

To be honest, it's always culture learning for Dallas and I too. Everytime you go back you have to remember what Canadian culture is...we especially struggle the first couple of weeks with wanting to hug and kiss everyone ;) as that's the Mexican greeting. So if we get a little too close to you for comfort just bear with us.

This picture is from 7 years ago, the last time we were in Canada in winter. Carter was 3, Logan was 1, and Brady was 3 months old. So they don't remember winter. They are super, super excited for snow. We'll see what they think of the cold!

All right, I will leave it at that for now! I hope this gives you a bit of an idea. As you can see, it serves several purposes which can make it seem a little ambiguous at times. 

See you soon Manitoba.

Question: Do you have any missions teams coming out this year?

The next missions team we have coming arrives next week!

Our home church in Canada, Kleefeld EMC, has sent their youth group to be with us in Mexico every other year since we moved here. This will be their 4th time in Mexico with us! They arrive next week Friday, the 25th, and leave on April 1.

Each time they come the dynamics are different. Our ministry changes and grows in a two year period, the youth that come are different, and the ministries we get them involved in are different. But each time we have not only thoroughly enjoyed it, we have seen the benefits to both our ministry and in the lives of the youth.

It's also neat going back on furloughs and re-connecting with those that came. We often know their parents or older siblings and I love it that we are staying at least somewhat "current" with the new generations in our church back home.

Another part we love is re-connecting with the leaders that come. Peter, the Associate Pastor, and his family have become good friends of ours over the years. And the other leaders were youth back when we were youth leaders in the church (and I babysat some of them for several years back in high school!).

Kleefeld youth group back in 2014

Other than that, the other team lined up for this year will be the annual Prayer Team in November. We will keep you posted on that and would love to have you come on the team and pray with us for our ministries!

This past week we also had the annual visit from our EMC reps - my dad (Ken Zacharias) was here, as he is the Foreign Secretary at the EMC. Garry Koop, pastor at the Steinbach EMC and brother to Ernie was also here, along with EMMC missions director, Abe Giesbrecht.

We had a great week together with all of them, as a team and with our church people.

Below is an updated team picture from the week. Our team, together with our 2 Ascend Interns. Allison is towards the end of her time in Gdl, and Jesse is just beginning.

Question: What for you is the most rewarding part of your ministry?

The word that comes to mind when I see this question is RESTORATION.

There are many rewarding parts of ministry, but something important to me is seeing people restored.

1. Restored to a personal relationship with God. 
I love seeing people come to know God, and I especially love seeing the process of it! For example, one lady I am currently studying with is on that journey; she is waking up to the realization that God is pursuing her and I come home excited from studying with her each week. God is speaking and she is listening. This is the thing I am most passionate about, and I have much listening to do as well!

2. Restored to wholeness.
I believe that true wholeness can only be found when you are in personal relationship with God. He created us to be this way. This does not mean that your problems will disappear, but our true worth is wrapped up in who God is, not in who we are. So often we base our worth on what other people think of us and we try so hard to meet that expectation - even if it's an expectation we only think they might have. Helping people in all senses of "wholeness" is something rewarding for me, be that Spiritual, emotional, etc.

3. Restored to relationship with other people.
I enjoy mediating, if you can use the word "enjoy".  When I used to work back at a restaurant in Canada, I actually enjoyed taking the phone calls from upset customers. I liked being able to calm them down and help them.

Two of my top strengths when doing the Strength Finder test are Strategy and Empathy, and it explains how these two go together for me. I not only empathize with others, I like to help them figure out where to go from there and how to reconcile with others if necessary. I still remember a couple of years ago when a mother and her teenage daughter came over super upset with each other. They sat with their backs to one another, angry, but by the end of the evening they were hugging. This is not because of me, but it's rewarding to see people restored to one another and forgiving.

There are so many steps along the way to seeing people restored that are also rewarding, and of course there are a lot of steps and things that happen even after people are restored to God or to other people!

Things are not magically better and you need to continue to walk with people as the process continues.

Having people allow you into the the intimate parts of their lives really is a privilege an is humbling.


*I have been bad with taking pictures these last two months it would seem! These pictures are mostly from November when we had a church event.

Question: How does it feel to get 100%?

I am finally back to answer those questions I asked you to post last week! We have several to answer but send some more our way!

How does it feel to get 100%?

If I had to guess, I would say that my mom asked this question in response to the fact that I recently posted on facebook that while Dallas doesn't like to brag, I don't mind ;) And that he got 100% on his first Seminary assignment.

So Dallas' answer is: Well, it feels better than failing. 

To be serious though, it was a good way to start Seminary, as it's not something you decide to do on a whim. It's a serious investment of time and money and he has been putting a lot of effort into re-learning how to write papers etc.

Dallas has had a heart to truly help people, holistically, as long as I've known him. This includes Biblical counseling, which is what he's now studying. It'll be several years worth of studying, as he's doing one course at a time, but has proved to be do-able with our ministry and family schedule even though I know Dallas is feeling quite busy with everything he's involved in.

Something new he's been doing the last few weeks is playing squash, a chance to get together with a friend and ministry connection, as well as let some steam out!

They just go for an hour or so one evening a week but Dallas has already been looking into rackets...

I guess if you're a sports person, any sport will do??

QUESTIONS

It's time for another round of QUESTIONS!

Those questions you've always wondered about....about us, our ministry, missionary life, Mexico, about what happened to the egg that the rooster laid in the middle of the road...

...ask away!

Feel free to comment here, or post through facebook, email, etc. and I will do my best to answer as best I can. I may even be able to coerce Dallas or the boys into answering if your question is for them.

the once a year Question posts...

About once a year I have been opening the blog up for YOUR QUESTIONS!

 

{click on the label to the right "questions" if you want to see previous questions and answers}

 

So, send your questions our way.....about our family, our kids, Guadalajara, our ministry, food, school, daily life....whatever comes to mind. or even questions for our kids. Leave a comment here or if you have our email or facebook we can get them that way also.

In the last post I showed you Brady's lovely hair :-) I do love his curls but.....I did cut them off this weekend and I do think he looks older and less unkempt with the short hair.

This pic was from the day before or something like that. The boys were attempting to model the Jicama for me. For those that haven't had it, it kind of looks like a large potato, with a thicker skin that you cut off, and the inside is white and starchy. I'm told it's a vegetable, but you just cut it into strips and eat it raw, with lemon and chili....it's really good! It is kind of bland on it's own but refreshing and cool and somewhat juicy.

Previously that week....
Ironman, Captain America, and Superman/Wolverine came to visit.

and also this past weekend, we had our monthly get together as cell churches. It was nice and relaxing, with lunch, volleyball, praise and worship, and sharing. God is growing His church here, as we see in each person's heart as they deepen their relationships with Him and learn to reach out to others! Keep on praying with us as we seek to be faithful each day.

Question: What are some things you miss about Canada and what are some things you would miss about Mexico?

First off...
What are some things we miss about Canada?



Carter and Logan (at ages 4 and 2) the last time they saw snow

So I asked Carter what he misses about Canada, and he said:
- snow
- Grandpa and Grandma
- snowmen
- winter
- cold

He has a little theme going there!

And then I asked Logan what he missed, and he said:
- Nothing!

I don't think he quite understands that it's different there though, since he doesn't even remember Canada at this point...



Logan and cousin Zippy in a quincey Dallas built!

Some things I miss from Canada are:
- hands down, being with family, friends etc. and doing all the things we used to do with them. The people is really what makes the place.
- Food wise...I miss Roger's syrup, brown sugar, angel food cake, certain chocolate bars, Kleefeld honey...all things we can't get here, but I don't really miss those things either b/c we always have them here since we get our visitors to make sure we are well stocked!
- sometimes, I do miss snow and cold. It sounds strange to me saying I miss snow since I really, really prefer summer, but there really is just something about a cozy day in the warm house with snow falling outside.
- Tim Horton's
- camping or going to the Whiteshell

Some things Dallas misses from Canada are:
- skating
- camping
- hockey
- some of the mountain biking there
- oh, well I miss being with family of course

Second question...
What are some things you would miss about Mexico?

This is Carter's answer:
- papa John and mama Connie (our co-workers)
- Brooklyn and Emma (fellow MK's)
- Zoe (our dog)
- Leo (bestfriend from school)
- Chinese food (hahahaha so funny, it's just that he really likes the chinese food from Kung Pow, a restaurant here)
- tacos

Things I would miss:
- real Mexican tacos
- real Mexican tortillas
- weather
- relationships we have here

Things that Dallas would miss about Mexico:
- the food
- the weather
- the people and our friends here, that's the biggest thing

Question: What is it like parenting in another culture?

The answer to this would depend a lot on what the culture is like in the country you're living in...

The difference in parenting that first jumps into my head is bedtimes! In Canada, people tend to put their kids to bed earlier, let's say around 8 pm, and then the parents have the evening with a quiet house, if they're home that evening anyways. If you're out visiting that evening...people will put their kids to bed at other people's houses and then wake them up to go home when the parents are done visiting. Keep in mind my experience is with little kids and friends with little kids :-)

Kids in Canada also tend to have regular, set, naptimes.

NOW, this is all "for the most part", there are exceptions even in my own family! It so much depends on the parents and what they do, but would you agree that in general set bedtimes and naptimes are normal??

I am also like that. I like my kids to go to bed around 8:00 (sometimes 9:00 especially when there's no school) and until a certain age, they have regular naptimes during the day.



Brady, Carter, Logan, and I

So, the latin culture is not so time oriented as we up in Canada are (and the States as well). They are relationship oriented, which is awesome. Both have their merits. The thing is to find that balance when you are a Canadian living in a latin culture. It's hard to completely switch your brain to a different thinking, but at the same time.....the new culture becomes such a part of you that sometimes you don't even realize when you have changed your thinking! And that's a good thing, especially when you live in the culture and want to and have to adapt to it in order to be fruitful in what God has called you to do there! (never mind that you would find it very hard to live in a culture that you didn't love and appreciate).

Bedtimes here...are more so that the kids go to bed when the parents do, or whenever they are tired. It's not like, it is 8:00 pm children, get to bed. Some parents do that, but not most. It's like...why do you want to get rid of your kids for the evening?? Some do put their kids to bed around 10 or so but all depends. Naptimes also depends on the family but in general kids sleep if and when they are tired.

We have found a balance with this that works for us. Our kids do have a regular bedtime, like I said 8:00 or so, because we do like our quiet evenings on our free evenings, but if we are out or have company over, the kids just stay up and play and hang out till we aren't busy anymore. Which means that at least every Friday night when we have Bible study here, they are up till about midnight! and they love it and it works and it means a sleeping in Saturday morning for them :-)

I hesitate to write about cultural differences b/c people will say, hey we're not like that, we don't put our kids to bed at a certain time, or latins will say, that's not true, we do put our kids to bed super early...but these are my observations.

I think I will leave this at that one point on parenting in another culture....

Question: What are some things that you and Dallas do for fun - together, seperately, or with friends?

 So here's Question #1...and in no particular order, here are just some of the things that Dallas and I like to do for fun here in Guadalajara!

 *Getting our kids to try new things! This was this last weekend and Logan (age 3 1/2) went ziplining for the first time. It's also a lot of fun for us going out and doing fun things with the boys.

*Something that is really common here for women is going out for breakfast after dropping your kids off at school. There are tons of little cafes and restaurants in the city and if you go in the morning, they're pretty much all full of groups of moms having breakfast together. So this is something I do with moms from school and also moms from our neighbourhood.

This pic was taken at a lunch, and a dad actually came with us that time :-)

Dallas and I like to have fun together, as a couple, and it seems we rarely do anything out of the ordinary together anymore. We try to go on a date about once a month but often it ends up being coffee, or supper, or a movie. Those are all fun...but something different is fun for us both!! Back in January we went as a family to a cabin here and there was ziplining across the mountain valleys so Dallas and I did that! It was suuuper fun. Ziplining does seem to be popular here, as there are numerous places to go and do it, both for adults and little kids.

*Biking as a family is another thing we do for fun, and Carter is just learning now to ride without training wheels!

*Dallas got into running when we moved here and met Fabian shortly after we got here. They have been running together a couple times a month. Dallas would say he still far enjoys biking over running, but it's something he does with other people, for fun and sometimes in 5km or 10km races.

*I love getting into my crafty side every once in a while. Sometimes I just have the urge to create something so I do little projects that only take an hour or so...after that my urge is gone and I move on to something else. Here I made a canvas with a pic of the boys, to test out how to use mod podge.

*Dallas' favorite thing ever to do is go mountain biking. I think it may be a tie with playing hockey and soccer, although I can't say for sure as he is not home at the moment :-) He does love it though, and goes out to the bush/forest close by at least every other week.

Dallas and John

Question #2 coming tomorrow!

Questions!?

I was looking back on the blog and it's been a year since I last did some Question/Answer posts!

So, let's see if any of you have some questions for us. We'd love to hear them and I really like your questions because they make me think about things that I may not normally think about and it gives you a chance to have a little interview with us and not just read the interviews with our boys all the time...although I really enjoy doing those :-) I find them quite funny to read back on as the boys change and get older.

Leave us your questions here in comment, or email us, or facebook...whatever you like...

Some suggestions? 
our ministry, our kids, us, the city, Mexico, school, our thoughts on such and such, funny, serious...etc etc

the amount of caucasians here

I should have added to my post from yesterday, about the differences between Guadalajara and Delicias, the amount of caucasians (white people) that there are...

In Delicias we probably saw only 2 other white people in the whole 2 years that we were there. There are no Mennonite colonies right by it, and the population is mostly national Mexicans. We completely got used to that and for us it felt SO strange to go to Cuauhtémoc where our co-workers lived and see Mexican Mennonites! There we didn't stick out as much as in Delicias, but we got used to being looked at and our boys got used to having their blondy hair touched eveywhere they went :-) We were comfortable with it all though.

Well in Guadalajara....we see Caucasians often (and people from other cultures also but not as much so far).

We see them at the MB church :-) the other missionaries there
We see them when we're with John and Connie ;-) since we have co workers in our city now.
We see them at Costco...today we were picking up a pizza there after church and as I was waiting I as amazed at how many other Cuaucasians I saw. It still takes me aback!!
We see them other places too, on the street, at another church we visited here yesterday...

They are here for many many things, Guadalajara is a huge city and as we are told, has many international firms and Universities that do exchange type things.
Some we've met are here as Medical students, taking their 1 or 2 years abroad, some are teaching English at Universities, some are also Missionaries, some are business people, some are retired here...

So it's just an observation that we see more white people than before :-) not good or bad...the ratio is just higher here and it's different for us. We'll probably get used to it. I think... That all said though, it is of course Mexico and there are many more national Mexicans than Cuacasians here.

Below is a little info bit that I found on Wikipedia...not sure on all the facts but we've heard this info elsewhere also and I found it interesting.

In a 2007 research of the fDi magazine Guadalajara was the highest ranking major Mexican city having the second strongest economic potential of any major North American city and only Chicago scored more highly for sheer economic potential,^[7] in the same research was considered the "city of the future" due to its youthful population, low unemployment and large number of recent foreign investment deals, it was also found the third most business friendly city in North America.^[

Question: What differences have you noticed so far between Delicias and Guadalajara?

ok so I think this is the last question and then we'll get back to our "regular" posts!
Almost everytime we drive somewhere I comment that I should have my camera with me since there's so many things that looks different here that I could/should be taking a picture of. But then the next time we go somewhere I forget the camera again.

but here's a few differences between Delicias and Guadalajara...both in Mexico but Delicias in the north and Guadalajara further south.

TERRAIN, VEGETATION ETC.

Delicias is more of a deserty, arid area. It's quite dry there and you see a lot of different cactus', shrubs, etc. Delicias is a valley but is surrounded by hills/mountains...in fact everywhere we've driven in Mexico we've been surrounded by mountains! Something I didn't know before we moved here. The Delicias rainy seasons is July/Aug and that's when things start to green up and the mountains are so nice then, but from about Nov-June it's brown and dry. Imagine Manitoba in winter without the coverage of snow :-)

Guadalajara is not deserty and is more tropical looking. There are more fruit trees growing here, there are huge trees that grow over the streets and provide a canopy...there are also some cactus' but we havn't seen nearly as many as in Delicias area. Since I've been bad taking pics lately...theres just a couple below. The one on the left is an elephant tree, it's in our backyard...they come in all sizes, this one is about as tall as Carter. The tree on the right gives you a glimpse of a large tree...but there are some much larger with much cooler roots and branches for climbing on.

In Guadalajara we are also surrounded by hills/mountains but again are more in a valley where we are.

I promise soon I will get some more pics! There's much more to show you.

WEATHER

Right now we are in rainy season in Guadalajara and everything is beautiful and green. But when we were here visiting in March, everything was brown and dry. Overall though it's more humid here. BUT the temps aren't so extreme as in Delicias.

In Delicias we had temps of 40ish or more for all of May/June...then 30 or so for July/Aug then in the winter, Nov-Feb it was cold!! It gets below freezing and when a brick house has no heat....that's cold. Believe you me. And if you say you'd love 40 or more for 2 mths straight...try it! and then tell me what you think :-) There though we had an air cooler in our house, not like an air conditioning, but it kept our house at about 28 degrees which was really nice.

now in Guadalajara, the temps aren't as extreme, as I said. But I won't say too much...because we han't been here year round yet. I know though that there aren't 40 degree temps too often and the winter isn't as cold. It's just a nice temp for the most part. Right now we're sitting at 25-30 during the days. They do tell us that in the winter though we'll be using our heater to heat our house a little since again, house with no central heat. We also don't have an air cooler in the house now so in the summer it may feel hotter inside.

LANGUAGE

I thought there would be more differences in the Spanish from here to the north, but not much. In Chihuhua State though you say the "CH" as "SH", where as here it's a harder "CH" sound, so that's something I need to change :-) I still catch myself saying it the SH  way. I grew up knowing spanish, always saying the CH...and after 2 yrs in Delicias of saying SH it's hard to break the habit! Otherwise though I think it's mostly expressions that are different.

FOOD

Again, I've really not seen a lot of food differences. Tortillas are the same, beans are the same, meat is the same, bbq is the same...I'm sure I'll come across some yet though. oh there is a food called "Vampiros" in restaurants that I didn't have up north...but it's much like a tostada.

And they eat meatballs here...which we never saw eaten in Delicias.

Questions: Where do you shop? What's the weather like?

We're back with some more questions answered:

Where do you shop?

Clothes wise...I don't know yet! When we lived in Northern Mexico we were only 5 hrs from the US border so we would do all {most of} of our clothes shopping when we went up there. Seriously, the price of things is cheaper there b/c so many products in Mexico are American so they cost more here b/c of transporting, etc. You can buy localy made clothes as well, at markets or superstores, although the quality is not as good. I have bought some shirts though at places that would be like a WalMart.

Very close to our house {10 min away} is the Galerias mall....huge mall with a movie theatre, Imax, 3 stories tall, lots of American brand name stores, Marble Slab ice-cream, restaurants, etc etc etc. It is a very busy mall and the prices would be about the same as in a Canadian mall or slightly higher. If you buy things on sale then they're not bad. BUT for example, shopping at Sears here in Mexico is more expensive than in Canada or the US...things are just priced a little higher.

Below is part of the outside of the mall and part of the inside...

If you don't want to buy clothes at the mall, you could buy clothes at the superstore/grocery store places or at the market downtown {havn't been to the one here in Guadalajara yet}. We'll have to see where we end up buying clothes, I think it'll just be wherever we find a good deal.

And, we have.....

Costco!! Exciting :-) But BAD for me b/c I see things in there that I can't get and havn't been able to get in Mexico before moving here and it makes me want to buy them......I don't have a ton of extra storage space though so that should prevent me from buying too many bulk items.

I might have to save some of that for my special Christmas time shopping. Although, there are some things that we do want to buy there b/c they are cheaper than elsewhere and Costco is 1 of our main shopping stops when we run out of certain things. The Costco here is always very very full and a couple of weeks when I was standing in line, the lady behind me started talking to me {b/c I had Brady with me and he's a natural drawing factor!} We ended up going for coffee yesterday and we had a good time! We've talked about getting together as families so we pray we can connect more with this family.

and yes I can get...Costco muffins and eat at the restaurant and have huge hotdogs or pizza :-) That was a fun tradition when I was younger, going into the city to shop at Costco and have lunch there.

On to, Soriana. Or WalMart. Or Mega. They're all about the same, all comparable to a Superstore or a ...WalMart. In Delicias I mostly did all of my grocery shopping at Soriana but here the closer one is called Mega so that's where I go. These stores are where tons of people also do their grocery shopping.

hmm what else do we shop for? Can't think of anything right now. We get gas at Pemex...all gas stations are run by the government and all are called Pemex.

oh we also went to Tonala one day, it is on the other side of the city and is a touristy artisan area. You can get paintings, pottery, etc etc, it's a huge area. We picked up some pots for our plants in front of our house and we plan to go back there someday to have a headboard and bookshelf made. If you get them made...much cheaper than buying new at a furniture store.

And the Weather?
Is WONDERFUL! It's at that time of year right now where we have highs of 27 every day and about lows of 18. Nice and sunny during the day and every other day or so we get a little rain shower and some thunder, usually in the evenings. We're liking this weather! In winter it'll be colder and April/May or so (I think that's when) it gets hotter.

Question: How's it feel to be the mother of 3 already?? Any tips?

This question came from a friend who's expecting her first baby in a couple of months! So how do I feel about already being a mother of 3??

Somedays it feels chaotic, like I am just keeping them out of each other's hair, telling them to behave, not to hit, not to whine, to say please, to clean up their dishes, etc etc. The days that feel chaotic usually have to do with the days where 1 or more of the boys didn't have a good sleep or a good nap......

or Dallas or I didn't have a good sleep :-)

And sometimes I really do wish I had a whole day or week to myself, to do things on my schedule, to eat when I wanted, to get up when I wanted...

But I would not trade it for even that!! I do like my space sometimes, I'm not the type to always like my kids hanging on to me and being with me 24/7. But I cannot also imagine life without these 3 boys, they are just awesome.

Carter and Logan play so well together, most of the time, they'll spend an hour or more sometimes in their room playing with their toys and actually playing together, making their animals or trains or cars have conversations etc. Brady is starting to want to play with them, too, he can pull himself up on their train table and cause havoc now. Which usually is not so bad even.

I feel privaleged to be these kids mom, to have them like me, want me to play with them, to be able to teach them about God, to be able to cook with them, ride bike with them...

And the "already" part? Well in Canada it's not so strange to have 3 kids at age 29. But in Mexico from what we've seen...it's a little more unlikely. So here I feel younger than I am {since I sure do look it} which makes it feel like I shouldn't have 3 kids according to the way other people see me...but such it us and hey, it's only for a while that they're all so young and need this much attention.

right??? :-)

ANY TIPS??

don't ask me this! I could go on and on...but I don't want to just spout my opinions on here since people have different styles of parenting!! But I've got plenty of tips on getting your kids to sleep through the night early, to listen to you {at least start to learn to listen to you}, what kind of baby stuff to buy...but I'll leave those for specific tips when asked for them. I think I'm safer that way!

Question: Where do you go for fun? What do the boys like about it?

All right, here's some questions I got...I'll lump these 2 together into one answer since so far what the boys like and the word fun go hand in hand! This post will be very picture full though...

The things we've done for fun since we've been here...

PARQUE METROPOLITANO  This is a really large park about 2 blocks away from our house. It always has people in it...there are several biking and running paths and in the mornings and early evenings they are full of people doing...running and biking. Dallas and our co-worker John go out every morning to do either one of those {they just did a 10 km race on Sunday and Dallas placed 317 out of 1320 people! his first running race ever, although he's still more into mountain biking}. We as a family also try to go to this park several times a week, as many days as we can, to play and to meet people. It's a hub of activity that's for sure.

This is another activity that goes on the park. Every Thursday evening they put up a big screen and I'd say a few hundred people come and set up their blankets to watch a movie! We went one Thursday and then ended up leaving when the movie started b/c it was The Golden Compase, not so great for our kids :-) now we found a website where we can check what's playing ahead of time. It was fun though for the time we were there! And yes.....with our 3 little blondies people watch us everywhere we go. We are spectacles :-) but hey it also helps us meet people and that's our goal right now with having moved to a new city.

BIKING                                                            Carter recently got a new bike and Logan has a "new" bike in the form of Carter's old one. Logan is really liking biking...Carter is not so sure about his bike. It's more hilly here than he's used too which he needs to get used to. But we've done a lot of biking with Carter and Logan in our bike trailer, being pulled by Dallas, and Brady riding on my back in the babyhawk baby carrier! They all LOVE going for long bike rides like this, which we do in Parque Metropolitano. Brady is so happy up there on my back, talking away and playing with my hair.

OUR TERRAZA                        For the houses that are right in our neighbourhood, we have a terraza - a little park with a building and patio that you can rent for parties, etc. This is where we're working on biking with our boys until they get used to going longer distances. We've had fun playing soccer here, sliding, swinging...

In the early evenings there is a large possy of about 8-10 year olds that are all over this little park and the neighborhood :-) There seems to be a ton of kids that age around us. We're hoping to be able to meet some families with little kids too! But we havn't seen a lot of moms or dads out playing here with their little kids yet. This is a short walk away from our house.

One place that John and Connie have taken us to see us BOSQUE LA PRIMAVERA

We loved this place!! There's a stream with little "waterfalls" and the water here is WARM all year round...it comes from a volcano. It was seriously like bath water or warmer. On a hot day it'd almost be too hot but it was so relaxing being out there. It's just a short drive out of the city.

John and Dallas HAD to take their bikes there and do a little mountain biking.

I can just imagine sitting in this water with lawn chairs and terere next time....

OTHER FUN THINGS THERE ARE TO DO HERE:

- There's a ZOO we want to check out
- A large AMUSEMENT PARK
- An INDOOR SKATING RINK
- Lots of other PARKS
- TOURISTY places to visit and see

and I'm sure there's much more! It's a huge city and I'm sure has more than we will be able to do all the time....

MORE QUESTIONS?? leave a comment...

Questions from YOU

I do have some blog posts up my sleeve, but we want to hear from you!!

What would you like to hear about?

What do you want to know about Guadalajara...about our ministry...about our family...about our kids...about Mexico...about our life....about...anything {that we may actually know about...and within reason of course}

Leave us your questions here, or by email, or on facebook...and we'll post the answers as we get the questions!

looking for carseats

Does anyone in Manitoba have 1 or 2 carseats that we could borrow while we're there in November and December??

We need one for Logan - 25 lbs and 1 1/2 years old
and one for Carter - 32 lbs and 3 1/2 years old

Would be much appreciated! We don't really want to bring all of our carseats along and pay to book them as luggage or haul them around the airports :-) we only have 50 minutes layovers!! with 3 kids and carry-on....could be interesting...

Question & Answer

There were a few more questions from my post a little while...so here are some commentaries on that.

question 1: How long can a missionary stay in Mexico? (visa, duration)

To get into Mexico, we came on a tourist visa. We just picked it up at the border when we came through. Ours is good for 6 months, which I believe is the maximum length, so until January sometime. When it expires you can apply for another one at the border.

When our tourist visa expires in January, though, we will go to Chihuahua (an hour away from us) and hand it in. Then we'll apply for what's called a FM3 status. This status allows us to stay here for one year, and every year that we're here we have to re-apply for it. Some of the paperwork was already done for us by the conference before we came so we have it ready to go.

We're told that once we hand in our visa's and apply for the FM3, it could take a few months or more to get our new status.

So in answer to the question....technically we could stay years! Alvira is retiring next year after 22 years I believe, and another missionary retired a few years ago after 30 some years.

question 2: Explain the difference between Mexican and Paraguayan culture.

I thought about this...and decided not to answer it :-)

The reason being that I have been away from Paraguayan culture for quite a while and while I do remember Paraguay I'm sure there are things I don't know about the people and I don't want Trav and Rosey correcting me :D (although hey, write a post and I'll post it on here for everyone to read...).
We also havn't been in Mexico too long so I think I'll answer this after a little more time so I feel a little more confident in my estimation of the culture!

very good question though, I hadn't thought much of the differences in culture, but it's interesting to see how they're similar. I HAVE noticed food differences though...and I'll admit that right now I sometimes crave that the people selling things on the side of the road would have CHIPA for me to buy!! I can get milanesa in the restaurants here though...phew! (I am learning to like Mexican food though, just not at the point of craving craving it yet)

question 3: Why do little boys pee on their mommy's when they're having their diaper changed, and then start giggling?

Because in even 2 years time, when he pees on you when you're changing his diaper (or taking him to the can hopefully by then), HE KNOWS THAT YOU WILL NOT THINK IT IS CUTE AND CUDDLE HIM AFTER!!!! instead, he knows you will give it to him good...

About the pictures of the boys a couple of posts ago.....Faith did get it right after some prompting...Janet you're close! They've both got matching bruises on their foreheads...check again...I know they're hard to see.

Carter fell off his bed at night and Logan was shmucked in the head by Carter deliberatly swinging a camera at him...

Question & Answer

now to answer one of the questions from the previous post comments....

what are your goals for involvement in your first few years of ministry?

The first few years of our ministry would be our first term - as one term is three years long (actually four but this first term is three b/c our one year at language school counted towards the four years).

Our ultimate goal is to be an example of God's love in Mexico in the hopes that people will come to know God personally. Our next goal is to build a group of believers to worship and learn together...aka start a church. How this will happen...depends largely on the people we meet and the needs we find.

We are taking time right now and would like to continue learning about the Mexican culture. It's important to understand the culture of the people if you want to minister to them and become friends with them. We also want to work on our spanish this term and as everyone we meet in Delicias speaks spanish, everywhere we go we get to practice our spanish! Since I know a little more than Dallas (right now anyways....he tends to understand the grammer better than me so he just might pass me...aughg!!), I try to keep my mouth shut when we're buying things or whatever so he can practice. Once I open my mouth the sales people start to ignore Dallas and talk to me..haha.

Other involvements.... we have a few ideas and brainstorms of things we want to do to get to know people. I won't say just what they are yet b/c we don't know which ones are going to happen. Antonio and Letty have been helping us out with ideas of reaching out to people, also Alvira (missionary living in Cuauhtemoc who has been here many many years) has helped us a lot with understanding culture and ministry here.

and in the Orranteno church, where Antonio is the pastor, we are attending services there right now, Wednesday and Sunday evenings. Starting October I will be leading a women's Bible study there, with Letty helping to organize it.

so there's my answer :-) long term goals we know...very very short term to meet people!! How do we go from knowing NO ONE in Delicias to actually having people want to talk to us??? hmmm... rely on God and the HOly Spirit working in people's hearts.

pick a question...any question...almost

Do you have a question you'd really like for us to answer?? Anything you've always wanted to know about us...about what we know of Mexico so far...about why the sky is blue...why there is actually in fact no such thing as color...why we use black pen to mark our lines on our curtain fabric for cutting...why we have to mark a second line with black pen on our curtain fabric...why we end up cutting between the 2 black pen lines...

anything your little heart desires.

We will try to come up with an answer for you!