hey everybody

this is evelyn, we finally got our oven!!!!!!! this is a big thank you to everybody who helped us get it. we have done a lot of baking since we have had it and everybody enjoys it. so thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Party time!!!!!

Okay so yesterday we were invited to go to a birthday party for a little girl that was turning three. We were invited by her Aunt Margret and Uncle Alberto, who are very good friends of Nicole and Jason. It was really awesome:) They hired a Mariachi band to come play, which was of course highly entertaining. They walked around the room playing there music, stopping at our table quite a few times and singing to us:) I totally got a kick out of it; it was really funny. Even though we couldn't understand what they were saying, my dad informed us that they were singing love songs most of the time. Then there was the pinada; the two boys were along so they took a go at it. Rafael got everyone laughing, there was no blind fold so as the pinada came down he grabbed it and started hitting it with all he had in him. It was kinda sad; he started crying cuz he was so embarrassed:) Michael also gave quite a show: hitting it really hard and almost opening it. It was really cute. They got quite a bit of candy though:), which we brought home and shared with The Village kids. K well here are a few pictures of the party... didn't get really good ones of the boys hitting the pinada, but hope you enjoy anyways:) Edith:)

Friday, July 22,2011

Horst family update:)

This morning we had a shower of rain but now the sun is trying to peak through. The wonderful thing for today is that TWO backhoes are here working at moving mud...the mountain is pretty much straight up in back of the houses so now the plan is to make a driveway behind the houses then make steps(4meters wide and 4 meters high) up the mountain to make it safer and avoid more mud slide drama...thats alot of moving dirt/mud...but we need to fill in in the front of the houses because a little more of the mountain slid away each year so that now in front of Jason and Nicoles room there is only 5 ft till it drops off...so the plan for the front drop off is to fill in and make a front yard and then steps.....thats all still in talk stage so we will see how it actually ends up...we will try to keep pictures posted of progress:)

The oven was set in place and hooked up yesterday...so Evelyn made her first batch of hot rolls and everybody loved it!! This morning we made zuccini bread in the cake pans and that was a big hit as well:) Now we are eager to make granola...and monster cookies for childrens church tomorrow:) It is wonderful and thank you again to those who shared in making this happen:) Now we are lookin forward to going to Telancingo to get whole grains and yummy things at a health food store...And maybe there we can find bread pans and muffin pans.I think of baking and have to adjust my ingredients a little...I looked for chocolate chips and there were none at the bodega, Nicole said they have them at Sams in the big city but it cost $25 for a 3# bag...well no chocolate chips for now:) Nuts are really expensive, about $8 a half pound so that will need to be a rare treat too. At least raisens arent too crazy expensive. They are looking forward to cinnamon rolls..and we can get cinnamom and sugar:) and I checked about apricot jelly and they do have that(for those who have eaten my cinnamon rolls made with apricot spreadable fruit instead of sugar) We also have m&ms to make my monster cookies so that I know is a big hit...so we wont be deprived, just some adjusting:)

Another big weekend is ahead of us...On Friday some of the men go out to visit the various outlying churches. They usually have a service and spend the night. Often going on to another village on Saturday. Returning on Sunday. One of theservices is held at a place called Africa, surrounding villages are called Santa Domingo and Buenos Aires. The brothers joke about this being the international part of our ministry:) Then Saturday is childrens church....the size of that depends a lot on the weather these days and of course we had to cancel several weeks because of the mudslide. But if the weather is not pouring rain tomorrow we will have childrens church again. Then in the afternoon we have a dinner party to go to. We do not go to all of them but these friends have come to the village different times and we do want them to feel our love and care for them...such times are kinda overwhelming for me because I sit there feeling like a lump on a log and an idiot because I can not speak but eventually things will get better:)

Yesterday while preparing dinner it became a spanish/english class which was fun, we all did a bunch of laughing of us americans trying to say the spanish words and the mexicans trying to say the english. Later the one girl asked me"dificil hablar en espanol?"(is it difficult to talk spanish) and I laughed and said "Si." I pointed to Eldora and said " no nino, yo abuela"(I am no little girl, I am a grandma) They got a good laugh at that:) It did make me stop and think too because I suddenly realized I am the oldest woman here:) Thats different for me! I was always the little girl, now in the last years I am gettting used to being one of the older women but to be the oldest is really strange:)...guess it shows you that the women are young here in this village!!

ITS A SUNNY DAY!! Thank you to those who prayed with us for sunshine...the sun shone the last3 days and last night it didn't even rain during the night....so the mud is getting less smeary:) ....the backhoe fellow had to go do another job but we hope he will be back soon. In the meantime other jobs are getting accomplished....like the oven is here so they are building a cement shelf to get ready to get it hooked up....By the beginning of the week our fun with the oven begins...I have been collecting little things each time I go to town for making yummy muffins, cookies etc! We hope to go to a health food store about 1 and half hours from here some day before too long. Asher has also been working at cleaning the bodega ( tool room)...his creativity in finding space for everything is truly amazing!! Edith has before and after pictures to post soon.

The other big news is Pablo and Carlos are back... their mother had walked in about 3 weeks ago and wanted them back and there really wasnt much they could do about it...so this time when she brought them back all filthy dirty Nicole went to court and got papers signed so they are hers till they are 13 so again we have lots of little boys running around.....The sad part of that news is Nicole was wondering if the mother of the boys was pregnant again so she got a blood test done and sure enough she is pregnant...sigh..how sad!

Again I have to go...we dropped off Deya and Javier at market to shop and now it is time to pick them up:)More Later

This is Sunday and we are taking some time at internet...it continues to rain ...Pray with us for sunshine!!...backhoe can not come as long as we have rain every day!!
WE did get a washer and dryer!!!How nice when its raining to still have dry clothes...we have it hooked to a generator so its definitely not the most efficient or cheapest way but it does help us survive in this rainy weather:)
More later...we are well:)

FINALLY after a week of taking dirty and wet clothes to the laundermat in town we are caught up...the difference here in taking clothes to the laundermat in Mexico versus the united states is that you weigh the clothes when you drop them off and pay $1 for each pound but you go back later to pick it up and its been washed,dried and folded and put neatly in a bag ....so that was very helpful in that crazy week of being away from our home..thanks to those of you who sent money...at least $300 went towards getting 30 peoples clothes dry and clean which is pretty cheap considering that included some blankets and coats and jackets. So we are grateful to be on this side of that:) Now we are home but the getting clothes dry drama continues...it works reasonably well if it waits till after dinner to rain but many days it rains by 2 or 3 so then we have to figure out what to do with half dry laundry...take it all down and hang it up again in the pavillion or let it hang and hope it doesn't get too wet and hope it will dry the next day....I am pretty american so I still run and take it down and rehang it inside but it is all very time consuming!!...Nicole talked to a pastor and they are trying to raise money so we can buy washers and dryers. Of course that means we would have to get electricity. There is now a power line going past the village but they are asking about US$8000 to install a transformer for us...We are not holding our breath. In the meantime we will continue our clothes drying drama:)

Yes for those who said they realize a mud slide means a lot of work that is very true!!! There is so much mud and people will come and shovel and haul wheel barrow after wheel barrow load of mud and it seems like a drop in the bucket....The backhoe has come the last 2 days and we are grateful for everything it can get cleared but there is so much that it can not do...so if anybody wants to get muddy and do some good hard working it would be a good time to make a trip:)...now of course we are short on beds so you better call to see if we can work it out:)...and no matter how much we clean there is still mud:)...I am trying to work on some routines and just normal washing the floor and that does make some improvement when we sweep and mop the kitchen floor after every meal...it at least looks better for a little while and we can tell we have a concrete floor instead of a mud floor:)

When the mud slide hit the corner of our one dorm it moved it off the foundation about 3 feet....and destroyed 2 of the rooms......today the mens project was to move it back on its foundation inch by inch with man power.....they have it mostly in place so tomorrow will be the finish touches and we can clean the girls dorm and get them moved back in their room....we are using another room for Javier and Deya and their littles till rebuilding can be done.....so bit by bit we make some progress. The pavillion was a disaster as well...the mud slide came through and pushed the wood pile and all the misc. collection of stuff into the middle of the room then the water gushing through the pavillion off the mountain made big ruts so there is still much slippery, very messy mud in there.....so far we have done enough digging and hauling mud away so we can get some of the stuff pulled out and organized..there is still a ways to go:)!!!

There are many kind friends who if they can not help with the digging or cleanup they bring bags of food or blankets or bags of clothes to sort through. That first week we sorted through about 20 bags of stuff, took what we could use then passed it on to other needy folks.

Thank you very much to each one in your part whether it was with prayers or emails or text or money...each one was a gift and blessing..we felt very loved and taken care of. May God reward and bless each of you!!

Mexico update

Just a quick update..I am so sorry we have not posted more. We were in the process of more when we needed to move to an orphanage and it ended up a tree had fallen on the line there so there was no electricity or internet.....And always the answer is manana as to when it wil get fixed:) the place is absolutely beautiful but it is not home so we are grateful for God's provision, at the same time we are very eager to get back home to the village.Only 2 of the rooms were destroyed(not ours for those who wondered) but there is much mud and mess to clean up and figuring out how to go forward. Its been a crazy week for Jason and Nicole with having graduations every day and getting Jason's mother back to Mexico City to fly home..they are pretty exhausted ..please pray for them. We have had some sun to be able to do some clean up but we are hoping to really hit the clean up by Friday. Hopefully we will get moved back soon, depending on the amount of rain we have the next few days. Thanks again for everybody's love and prayers and care!! GOD IS WONDERFUL

Before:

After:

Pictures:)

okay here are a some pics of the house that was ruined. These are before they took it down yesterday.