We are once again enjoying REAL milk! About three weeks ago, one of our cows had a bull calf, which Papa named Panda since it is so black and white:) The cow, Fina, is a terrible milker; she kicks and won't let her milk down unless the calf is nursing. So we have to bring the calf, let it nurse for a sec, then continue milking. When I did it, we had to do that like four times…painful. She does give close to two gallons, though, at each milking time; so mom has been making a bunch of cheese:)

We are also enjoying wonderful dining room space again. The supports for the ceiling of the dining room in the pavilion finally came out about 3 weeks ago! There is still a lot of work to do till it is finished: plastering the walls, putting glass in the windows, and doing the floor. As of right now, we've swept it out, set up the tables out there, and we are thoroughly enjoying the breathing space in the kitchen!

There are also a few new people here again, and a few have left. Alejandro went to  Village#2  in Tulancingo, and Teofilo went with a group in Mexico City. That puts our numbers at about 45. Eugenia is a twenty year old single mother, with a one and a half year old daughter Yami. They are from San Martin, which is on the way to Africa. At first Yami would scream if anyone dared to touch her besides her mother or uncle Benjamin. She now actually lets people touch and hold her if you have her attention; and she has become quite the entertainer, chattering and waddling around getting into trouble:) It's been a blast to have another toddler around!!!! Eugenia is quite the worker; sweet, silent, and cheerful with a wonderful laugh.

Mari Sol, a 9 year old girl, came about 2 weeks ago. Her brother Isaiah, who is 13, has been here since last summer. Another one of those sad stories. Their father is drinker, who beat his wife. After a really bad beating, she died a few days later; leaving nine children. Some are adults, not totally sure of all the details. After being abused by her siblings and relatives, Mari Sol moved in with her grandmother, who ended up sending her here. She is a lot like Isaiah: sweet, quiet, but smiles a little more readily then her brother. Right now, I'm training her to clean the bathrooms; she is a very obedient girl and a fast learner. They are working at enrolling her in school.

The weather seems to be warming up…We've had some totally awesome sunny days, between the rainy ones. We just finished up our pea patch, which was enjoyable while it lasted. We've also had a steady supply of carrots, cilantro, and green tomatoes, but thats pretty much over too. Over the weekend, they planted tons of chili. They have also planted cabbage, green tomatoes, beans, and more peas. We love to get things from our own gardenJ

The mason brothers are working outside the village right now on a building project for a brother in LaGallera.

The brothers are busy preaching and evangelizing…On Monday evenings they go to Huautla, Tuesday evening they go to Cuamila, Thursday evening to Chicahuastla, Friday evening to Cutzontipa and then Saturday they leave for the more distant outreaches and return on Sunday night…..Juan leaves for Africa where he stops at San Martin for a service on Saturday night then on to Africa for Sunday morning service and then on his way home he stops at Cuatepalcatla and has a service there and returns to the village late Sunday night. Javier and his wife go to Osomatlan , and Chucho goes to Comaxarco. Also a group goes to San Lorenzo.

Asher has had a cough since December before we left to the states. Finally after much coughing, a week with fever, and slowly declining he agrees to go to the dr....as we suspected their was infection in his right lung...after a week of medication its looking much better...Dr. wants him to take meds another week to be sure all is gone. His blood pressure is a little high as well...I WONDER WHY??:) Dr did a blood study as well and it looks good so Asher says it looks like I'll be kicking for awhile:) Thank God.

Thanks again to everybody for your continued support through prayers and letters and all. God bless each of you

Pictures....

Okay so we've just transferred our pictures to Google+... The link that will get you there is on the right:)

Happy New Year!!!!!

We're back, and boy has it been busy! 

We had an amazing time in New Braunfels,TX!! We stayed at a really cool old historical rented house called the Waulheifer Haus(I don't remember if thats how you spell it:). These are the people that were able to come down and see us: Tabach, Hashachar and their girls came with Donna, Brian and Chasah, Ben, Elena and Jessica, and Brenden and Brandon. It was soooo good to see people again:) 

Brenden and Brandon got to come down with us!!! So the drive was a little cramped, but fun:) Eliana and I were super grateful to have them here…We've been planning on changing our room around and painting it, so Brenden was able to help us with that, which was totally awesome!!! We got to watch some of Brandon's videos of the recent weddings and other events, which we totally enjoyed!!!!! On the 31st, Papa got them on the bus to go to the airport. They had to make a few switches, but it sounded like they managed okay:) We loved having them, and totally can't wait till they come again!!!!!

On Monday, we had a New Years Campaign… We started preparing for it on Friday: hand grinding a ton of stuff for moli, making paper flowers for the tables, making sure everything was cleaned up, clearing out of the pavilion, and setting up chairs and tables. We made all the food Monday morning: 10 kilos  of mexican rice, a gigantic pot of moli, and two huge bowls of pork. We bought 70 kilos of tortillas!!!!!! There was a pretty big crowd, about 200 people, and pretty much all the food got eaten besides some moli. It was mom's birthday, and one of the brothers got up and read a letter from all the women in The Village to her. It basically expressed their love and gratefulness for her, which was really really sweet. Then everybody sang their birthday song. So she was very blessed:) 

So this next month will be pretty busy! One of the brothers from nearby, Brother Sergio, was  able to get like 10 boxes from Samaritans Purse for the children in the churches here. So this week some of the people from The Village along with Sergio and his family, will be visiting a church everyday and handing out gifts to the children there, also giving a bible study. In the weeks to follow each church will be given 3 more bible classes, so that will be lots of going back and forth. 

Thanks to all who made it possible for us to get up to the states!!!! We are sooo grateful!!!! Everything went safely and pretty smoothly! Also mom said to thank all who sent her letters and gifts! It was all very refreshing and again she felt very loved. Once more, thank you for all your prayers!!!!!! We can never say that enough!!!! We hope everyone is blessed with a Happy New Year!!!!!! 

Edith<3

NOVEMBER 28-

    Wet cool weather is here …and I know you may get tired of hearing it but again Praise God we have a dryer:) and a washer…the water is very cold on the fingers for washing by hand:( This last trip to US I brought an electric tea pot…how wonderful that has been for heating water in the kitchen for dishes, for tea, for cooking etc etc. I am not too good at washing dishes in cold water on a cold day…it makes my fingers hurt awful so hot water is awesome:)

    It seems like the building of our dining room is going too slow:) It was great the week Alfanso and Jaime were working all week but normally Jaime is working alone and maybe only 3 or 4 days instead of 5 or 6…so progress is slow:( Maybe the men don't mind the crowded kitchen where everybody cannot find a seat to eat and the kids eating outside in the cold and dark at night like I do:) LOL NO the guys are always busy. There's just too many things to do:)Yes well I guess slow progress is better than nothing.

    Since we last wrote the men bought a sow who will have babies the beginning of the year. Also Hermano Juan bought 2 calves. And Asher traded our 2 bulls for a cow and a heifer calf. So we are getting milk again ..on a good day we get a gallon in the morning and evening but some days she only does half a gallon at a time..we are trying to figure out the little tricks that help her give more milk. Its taking a good bit of Ashers time to be sure she gets enough grass…thankfully we already had a grinder so he can get corn husk from market for a little bit of nothing and bean hulls and orange peel and grind it all up with the grass and she eats it up….So if the milk doesn't get all drank in the morning with coffee then some days we get to make cheese which everybody loves….theres a variety on who likes the milk and who doesn't:) So we still buy some of the box fake stuff for those who don't want the real stuff:)

   We did switch the boys dorm and girls dorm…they are still in the process of building the addition up by the boys dorm which will be a room for the older single guys and a spare room for guest. When that room is done,  some of the older girls are moving into the room that the single guys are now in. That will open a number of beds in the girls dorm. After talking to us and Bertha, Evelyn is planning to move into  the girls dorm. The girls are all excited about it. She feels it will be good to help her Spanish and prepare her a little,when she  leaves the nest in 6 month to go back to Rose Creek to prepare for going to college.

   December 17 we leave for the border so we can renew our 6 month tourist visas and renew the van papers. We are asking God to provide enough money so we can register the van in Mexico. We do not have definite but from what people have told us we are guessing $500- $1000. Before that trip we really need to buy at least 2 tires which cost $200 each. We will be a little north of San Antonio in a rented house with family and friends for 3 days, 4 nights. We are very excited about this and grateful for friends and family who paid for this so we can all be together. We are looking to God provide financially what we need for the trip. 

    After being here a year and a half I thought I should be through the worst of homesickness but getting through Thanksgiving and our grandbaby, Jessica's first birthday were rough for me. Thankfully, its better now:) I am so grateful for my daughters who have become my close friends but some days I still just get lonely for my friends:)

   Blessings to each of you. Thank you for reading this and praying and all your love and support.

Today is Papa's 53rd birthday!!!!! 

So once again we have a few more recruits to The Village…About 2 weeks ago, a teenage girl Blanca came to stay for a while. Apparently she wasn't getting along with her step dad, so her mom wanted to get her out of the house.  There are also some more single guys: Teofilo is 18 and his cousin Jose is 28. Teofilo has actually been here for about 3 weeks. This last weekend he went back to his house to check on his work there, where he met his drunk cousin on the side of the road. He offered to bring him to the Village, and give him work to do. So they have been working in the gardens and stuff like that around the land. 

Our numbers are now up to about 55, so every meal we stuff anywhere from 45-55 people on 3 6ft tables with the children out in the pavilion. So we are definitely awaiting the finished dining room!!! 

In the pavilion they have the concrete beams poured and are starting to form for the rest of the ceiling. This will probably take several weeks to prepare for the pouring of the ceiling/floor. Just to explain: the same slab of concrete will be the ceiling for the dining room and the floor for the upper level. 

This month we were able to sell some roosters, a turkey, and some rabbits. Which was a good step towards selling enough to pay for feed. Our daughter Liz is working at an agriculture fundraiser for us, so we were able to get stuff to make rabbit cages. 

Our neighbor has been wanting to sell us his 3 cows. It was more money than we had and more commitment then we can handle at this point. So we just bought one cow and a little heifer calf in trade for our 2 bulls, plus we gave 150 cash besides. The reason we wanted to by a cow, is because our 2 cows are dry at the present and this one will milk till the others have their calves. The heifer calf is still taking 3L of milk morning and evening, so we are only getting a gallon a day for us. But in 2 weeks we will ween the calf, and get more milk then. So we have 3 cows, all are pregnant, and will be having their calves at the beginning of the year. We also now have 2 heifer calves and 1 more bull calf. We are not getting big amounts of milk at this point, but we are building slowly and are quite happy with our beginning. Because of having milk, we used some of the fundraiser money to buy a fridge!!! We are pleased with our bargain: its a 16 cubit for only $465. 

So the seasons here are obviously changing. Last week we had our first days with drizzle and fog, with its dreadful freezing coldness. The roadsides have taken on a fall-ish sort of look. The brothers are planning cool season vegetables. 

The brothers are building another 2 rooms where the mudslide, last year, wiped out 4, and the girls and boys will be switching dorms as soon as they get it finished. The girls will feel a little safer in the middle of things instead of on the edge.

October 5--FINALLY we are writing a blog...we get busy with living life and forget to write about life:)
To catch you up on the work of the pavilion..all the big concrete support post are poured , at this point they are working on all the support beams...doing it in concrete is a LOT of work...they have to put all the forms together so that takes alot of wood and time..then pour the concrete then when it is hard enough all the boards need to come back down...LOTS of work but in the end we will have a very strong building. And not only strong but dry and when the wood stove goes in hopefully there will be one warm spot from all the coldness and that makes all the work and sacrifice and mess worth it now.
The rooms on top of the showers have come to a standstill...Hermano Juan and his family are in 3 of the rooms and they are livable...still need to get glass for the windows and some little things like that. And the other room is in half way stage...always more pressing things:)
A new family has moved to the village..a family from San Lorenzo..Robert, his wife Martina 5 boys and the 10 month baby is a girl:) So we have lots of boys around:)...our numbers are up to 50 when everybody is there. Robert has been doing gardening things so that is great to have the planting get done...there has been so much building and other projects going that the gardening has had to wait. So once again the lettuce is getting planted, the carrots, etc. The oldest boy is 13, the youngest boy is 3. He was shy at first but hes so cute to try to befriend him and watch that smile come:) Of course we love having another baby around..we really enjoy Carlos and now little Maira.
Our boys had fun birthdays..a bunch of the guys went out of there way to do something special for them so they felt loved and they were delighted with the candies or cars or whatever little treasures they were given.And to the ones who sent the boxes for their birthdays a BIG thank you..I always wish you could see the delight on their faces as they open the treasures!! Now we are enjoying a family outing because their brother sent money for their birthdays.We found this rather rustic back a dirt road hotel..it seemed like it wouldn't be good deal but then we turned the corner and we all oh and awed at the green grass and trees and hammocks hanging in the trees inviting a quiet rest and lots of flowers and beautiful looking rooms...the only disadvantage is there is no internetn the rooms because of the thick rock walls..we sat out on the beautiful lawn on a sunny afternoon which was fine till the chill of the evening was here then we got chased indoors:) I am sure the green grass doesn't sound like that big a deal but after living on a mud hill for over  a year the green grass for the children to run and play, the pear trees and apple trees that they could enjoy the fruit, the hammocks, all the beautiful flowers everywhere, a loft with soft soft carpet and soft wonderful throw pillows and 2 hammocks to sit and  play games ... it all has added up to a pleasant experience and we are glad we found it:) And no TV:)

Again may God bless you and we thank you again for your support and encouragement!!

Jason and Nicole left for their trip to the states on Monday and will be gone till October 15.  

School started this week. The schooling system here is divided into 4 parts: Kindergarten, Primary(grades 1-6), Secondary(7th, 8th, and 9th), and High School(10th-12th). Most of the children here in the Village are in Kindergarten and Primary school. There are 3 Kindergarteners and 7 in Primary who are all under the same teacher;  5 students going to the local public school in La Gallera, 4 to high school and 1 to Secondary. Things seem to be going smoothly so far.

Evelyn has been going to the chiropractor twice a week for 3 weeks and she is starting to see good results. Today the chiropractor said she only needs to go once a week now, so we are very relieved. 

We are still getting daily rainfall. It's changed from July's late in the afternoon to later on when we are going to bed. The rain can be pretty heavy though, on some occasions, according to the buckets we've had over 4 inches. 

We have stopped selling bread for the time being, mostly because they've started doing school and there really isn't anybody else to go sell. So we get to sleep in till 6 now:)

Thank you all for your prayers and support!!!! God Bless.