April 10- I am home from Rhode Island after a wonderful time with my children and grandchildren there and of course Ron and MaryAnn:) It's been quite busy since I got back and a few changes....I will just copy a paragraph from Nicoles newsletter... Last week there was much change and transition that took place in the ministry here. Jason turned more leadership over to the nationals. This work will only grow and remain if it is overseen by nationals. I am pleased to say that they stepped up to the plate and things are running smoothly, in spite of the darkness around us. We are more than conquerors through Him..................

It really doesn't make a lot of difference for us..we are here to serve , so it doesn't much matter if we are helping Jason and Nicole or helping Juan and Bertha and Javier and Daya....so even if theres lots of talking and lots of emotion around us we just quietly continue to do what we can:)

The men have been working here on the land a good bit in the last 2 weeks..working on the dam and now working on the steps for the rooms that will go above the showers. Both are pretty labor intensive so to have 8 to 10 guys able to work has been good....and we just cook BIG pots of food and lots of tortillas:)

Its also childrens school break so this week the children went along with Jason and Nicole to Tulancingo to have some fun with the children from that church there...my 3 girls Eliana, Eldora and Emily also went along..today till Friday. So it will be quite quiet around here:)..but less workers as well:)

ON Sunday Rafael and Michael went home with a brother Everet(they have 4 boys) and they will come home tomorrow...Michael and Rafael love every chance they get to get to their place..they wish we lived there:) so its been very unusual for me..if anybody knows Rafael you know how very affectionate he is and cuddly and so loves his mama even if he's 5..so it feels too quiet and empty:) So for today Edith is our only child here so her and I are going out this afternoon to do internet and eat out and have mom/daughter time...she deserves it!! She had worked hard while I was gone and just in general is my right hand and serves a lot!!..so we will enjoy our only child for today:)

The day I got home from Rhode Island the cow had her calf.....a heifer!!! 3 cheers!! She is healthy and doing well....we have discovered the mother isn't too big on the milk production:( She seems to have enough for the calf but not extra..so that is disappointing at the moment....Asher bought some alfalfa hay to encourage the milk amount so we'll see if improvement comes.

So long for now......

March 19-Monday

Today is warm and sunny....we were glad because we washed 5 loads of clothes and hung on the line to dry...washer is to be done by Wednesday so that will be a blessing. I am glad for Edith's sake. Tomorrow Evelyn and I are flying to Rhode Island. Liz and Michael had a baby girl so we get to take care of them and Addie. We are very excited!! I am staying 9 days, Evie gets to stay a whole month. So please be praying for the children who could not come..it was not easy to say bye to them and know how much they'd miss me. Please pray God gives them an extra portion of grace and especially Edith as big sister steps into Mama role for a few days..thank God Asher will still be there and promises to have lots of time with them to help fill that gap..I am very glad that we can cling to all of Gods precious promises and be at peace that all is in His control. I have left my kids before but leaving them in a foreign country is not as easy:( So I am counting on all our friends to join us in praying!!

To our joy the men were able to take a day to clean up the wood and clutter around the shower area..it looks so much better:)

On Thursday evening Billy came to the village. the children were so happy to see him.He is living in the US, going to school. He came back to visit for a week..it is certainly good to see him again. To celebrate his visit the whole village took a day to go to the lake and played ball and just relaxed and had fun..sad part was the sun hid behind all the clouds and the breeze was cool after we got there...we left the village to sunny sky and warm temperatures so we did not have enough jackets along. It was still pleasant and I am glad we had that fun day.

I'll be back after I get back from Rhode Island:) Gods blessings to all our friends!!

Another busy week is past...Nicole has been gone alot..dealing with medical things and contacting people about trying to get the boys back...She let the boys Pablo and Carlos go to see their parents over the weekend and they never came back(2 weeks ago). Now the parents are trying to say Nicole is the children kidnapper..of course that is not true but there is paper work to do and the proper official people to talk to etc and that all takes time so at this point they are still not back with us and there have been reports of seeing the kids on the street and when asked where the mama was , they pointed to the whore house so that is pretty sad..pray with us that we get them back soon to get them away from an awful life.

Juana's baby is doing well. And now just yesterday another mother Carol who is soon to have her baby girl came to the village so it is baby time:)

The men(included Asher this week) have been working in the field this week....so Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday we got up at 5 so we could get their breakfast , prepare their lunch and get them off to work by 7 or soon there after. This week they have been working in Huautla. One of the brothers there gave us some land to work, also Bro. John's wifes family gave him some land to work...Bro. John's land was grown up in weeds and brush so that had to be cleared and burned before we could plant. Of course all is done with machete and hoe. Part of it we planted in black beans. We also planted part of it in peruvian beans, the rest was in corn. Its a little over 2 acres in all.

Corn is planted using a pointed stick. The holes are made on 1 meter squares, 5 grains of corn dropped in each hole, and covered. Then a handful of chicken litter is dropped on top for fertilizer. (they did come home very smelly, LOL) This process is quite time consuming, quite a bit different than planting 70 acres a day sitting in the tractor seat. Hopefully we will finish that on Monday and then we will go on to help other brothers with their farming projects.

The weather has been quite ideal this month. Warm sunny days during the week and rain on the weekends. Soil moisture is very good so farmers are quite hopeful in their planting! It was good for me to be reminded of Ashers perspective because rain to me means mud mud mud, dirty clothes and hard to get clothes dry so his perspective helps me let go of my negative feelings and remember the good it is doing and how it is really a starve or be fed kind of situation and rain is such a gift!!

This weekend Asher and I came away for a few days to have some time away from the work and pressures and be together before I leave for my 9 day trip to see our daughters and family in Rhode Island..part of this time away we drove to Pahuatlan to get some bee equipment. In January a guy gave us 2 bee boxes. One had a strong hive. The other just had a nucleus. During February's cold rainy weather the nucleus didn't make it. But recently a strong hive moved in. Thank God! So we went to get a veil, gloves, smoker, and 4 honey boxes so we can take care of these bees. Hopefully we can add more hives as we go along. The bee equipment is quite reasonable here. To get everything you need for a hive cost about $70. The nucleus with the queen cost about $45.

The scenery was amazing..the mountains are a breathtaking view. And I am still in amazement of how these people live on the sides of the mountains and make gardens and a living on the steep slopes. Even the towns are on the mountain sides..very amazing. And I know I said it before but it amazes me at the gorgeous beautiful rich houses and not far away the littlest of shacks and the poor poor people. Its heart wrenching!

Adios...till next time:)

Well our dear friends Tabbach, Anna and Donna left on Tuesday.Thank you so much for coming!!! It was simply wonderful!! Please come again:)

Seems like ages ago since they were here ..it was such a busy week!! On Tuesday Juana's baby Edgar was born, weighing 6#. He is healthy and so so beautiful. We love having a baby around:)

Weather has been very warm this week..up to 85 now last evening we got a good rain which was perfect for the field of corn the men had just planted.

The men also started taking the boards and post away at the showers..how nice and spacious and clean they feel to have the poles out of there:) I suppose soon they will start on the building of the rooms upstairs.

Here's a picture of Juana and the baby..aren't they beautiful??

The much anticipated trip to the border is now history:) It was an incredibly good trip..all went well in traveling, paper work went smoothly and the time with friends and family was simply delightful!! We were able to meet our sweet Jessica for the first time and how precious she is and our having time with Ben and Elena was totally wonderful.....it was very healing and delightful:) even tho' it was way too short!! There were 2 vanloads of friends that came from Rose Creek and now Tabbach, his daughter Anna, and a friend Donna came along home with us and will be here till Feb. 28. How happy we are to have them here and the girls Evelyn, Edith, Anna, and Donna are having a great time together.

Friend time is especially wonderful at this chaotic stressful time...we got home to mud mud mud!!:( It had pretty much rained the whole time we were gone and still raining..we have had a few days of no rain since then but today is another rainy day...evidently February and March are lots of rain before our dry months of April,May and June so it is good to be getting everything good and soaked before all the sunshine even if it is rather miserable living:( the other thing that makes things extra stressful is the shower situation...they are wanting to have an upstairs above the showers to make 2 more rooms...so they took off the other roof and began to make framing for pouring a concrete floor/ceiling over the showers before we left for our trip..we got back the day they got the floor poured......so all the showers were a complete disaster and dirty..so the next day "Hermano Tomas"(Tabbach) got right in there with Chucho to get the water hooked back up and the girls scrubbed and scrubbed to clean up some of the mess made with concrete and mud...that night people could take showers if you used a flashlight. And getting hot water was an issue because of all the wet wood...The next day Asher and Tabbach worked on lights ..so bit by bit progress was made toward clean hot showers again:)....altho at this point the post are still in the showers and make moving around rather complicated but this too shall pass and we will have nicer showers and 3 rooms above before too long:)

Goats are now at a brothers instead of here..I must admit I sigh with relief..they were taking a lot of Asher's time but now we actually get to see him after supper..and Michael gets to read his story to Papa like he likes to do and we even get some chat time before we are so tired we cant say a word LOL...so i will enjoy the little break...eventually he will be milking the cow so some of his evening time will be taken up again:) But that will be a good thing to actually have milk so we won't complain about that.

Juana's time is drawing near for her baby to be delivered..her pregnancy has been high risk and there was concern different times whether all would be well with the baby but the last ultrasound showed a healthy baby in perfect position, no cord around the neck, a healthy size...so pray with us that this would be a good experience for Juana and all would be well.

Theres a new couple here...McGiver and his wife Lilia and their 7 month old son Kevin..we are just loving have a baby around:)....he is so chubby and so adorable. I love to watch Papa Asher get his grandpa time with him..he loves his beard and Grandpa is working at teaching him to be gentle instead of pulling his hairs out:) She seems very sweet and I look forward to learning to know her better..she's a good worker and very helpful. They are expecting another baby in late summer. She seems to be handling early pregnancy quite well.

I mentioned the rain but did not include the fact that we are enjoying springtime..the temperatures are warmer even when its raining it is not frigid and if the sun comes out it quickly warms into the 70's. Several weeks ago we enjoyed the peach tree blooming, the azaleas blooming, everything is greener, the colder temperatures are fading in our memory(well, maybe)..We are so happy for those days we can actually take off our jackets and caps. Last week one sunny day Michael and Rafael were working in the garden with papa and the sun was beating down on the south side of the mountain(houses are on the north side) and Michael comes down and says, " Mama, its so hot up there and when I say hot, I mean HOT!" I was amused how quickly he was hot instead of delighting in the warmth of the sun after so many rainy days.

Will close for now..sorry the long quietness..will try to do better once again:)

MORE NEWS:)...I just realized I forgot to post on here that we bought a cow!!! She has a calf so we are giving them some time to adjust before we wean the calf and get the milk ourselves:) We will probably wait till after the trip to the border. The calf is a bull so we will sell it at some point. The cow is also pregnant so for our $800 we feel like we got a pretty good deal!! She is used to only pasture, no grain so that is a plus as well. Time will tell but she does seem to fit with our situation. At this point we do not have a pasture worked out so Asher takes her on a walk up the road and she eats off the road side, which is decent eating at this point because things are fairly green. But it is time consuming. So thank you again to all the friends who shared money so we could buy this cow, continue to pray with us as we work out the details:)

NEWS...we just found out that the paper work we were doing is not the right thing so we are going to need to make a trip to the border to renew our visas! We are beginning the paper work to get clearance to go in February...we want to leave the 5th and be in US by the evening of the 6th...Eliana is so excited she will be in US for her birthday on the 7th..and we'll see if just maybe God will allow some friends or family to come and see us:) Of course money is needed for this trip..so we are trusting God to provide. And if He lays it on your heart to share there is always paypal but we also found another way that works good too..and that is to send a moneygram from Walmart to our Walmart in Huauchinango, Puebla to our legal names Ronald Horst or Wanda Horst.