|
| Today we took the opportunity to participate in a couple
of local activities. First, this morning at 10:00 the county had
a parade in conjunction with the local county fair. So, we went
and watched the firetrucks, band, civic groups, etc. as they paraded
down main street. Many of the entries were interesting, but the
parade itself was rather disappointingly short (about 15-20 minutes
total). It was also a bit chilly (to us) this morning at only 68
degrees. That felt even colder after the 100° high we had
yesterday!! After lunch we headed out to the fair itself. They
had quite a bit of entries in the fair in terms of livestock (cattle,
bunnies, goats, pigs, etc.) plus some general craft items. We
also perused the main exhibition hall where the vendors were
displaying their items. We did find that we can setup a booth
next year, so we'll just have to keep our eyes/ears open to be
available for that. We're also looking at the possibility of
putting something in the parade and distributing candy/literature
along the parade route. Unfortunately, the kids didn't get to
ride any rides. The wristbands were $20 per person, and we felt
that was too expensive for the types of rides they had
available. The kids didn't seem to mind too much though.
We took the extra time we found ourselves with to do a bit more
sightseeing here in Rio Grande City, the photos of which have been
included below. After that we've spent most of the afternoon
here around the house.
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| One local
family is hundled under some blankets, with coats on, to bear the
"cold" 68 degree temperature! |
Our family
waiting for the parade to start. |
Here comes
the parade. |
Leading the
parade is the local Rio Grande City High School JROTC. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| More of the
JROTC. |
More of the
JROTC. |
More of the
JROTC. |
More of the
JROTC. Get the feeling they have a rather large JROTC program? |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| And, the
last of the JROTC, running to catch up. |
The grand
marshall of the parade. |
La Grulla
fire department. We've seen this truck before.... |
Rio Grande
City High School marching band. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| The local
"princesses". |
The
sheriff's department. |
Mrs.
Figueroas Kindere Class. |
Another
view of the previous float. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Vaquero 4H
Club. |
And another
shot of the previous float. |
Forget what
she is "Ms." of, but this is "Ms. [Something]". |
A parade
float announcing the Cactus Country Festival coming up Sept. 26 in El
Sauz. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Some of the
local cheerleaders. |
The Hats
Off Saloon. I think we could have done without this float. |
HEB Grocery
store float. |
Addie and
August chasing down candy being thrown from the floats. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Booger
Barter, a champion "team roping" group. |
Not sure
what this float is "representing", but we always enjoy seeing
animals! |
A local
trail ride was offered before the parade, with all participating then
flowing into the parade at the end. |
A closer
view of one of the horses. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| After the
parade we went up by the Rio Grande City Cemetery, which we recently
discovered. It is very large. |
An addition
they are still constructing, complete with a covered area for candles and
other idols. |
Some of the
items in the aforementioned covered area. |
Some A
couple of the graves, complete with all of their decorations. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| The
entrance to the cemetery. |
Sign in
front of Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto in Rio Grande City. This is
actually a full-scale replica of the original in Europe. |
The main
grotto. People come here to pray and worship Our Lady of Lourdes
(Mary). |
This is the
main statue in the center, Mary. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| A farther
back view showing all of the seating available. |
This cross
is seen off to the right on the previous picture. |
This is the
Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Rio Grande City. It is the
main Catholic church in town, but there are several more. |
The
entrance to the Immaculate Conception School. I'll give you 1 guess
who runs the school. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Street sign
for the school. |
Street sign
for the church. |
Another
local Catholic church. They don't have a street sign, so we're not
sure of the name. |
A banner in
front of the church announcing an event in La Rosita, Texas, which is
more-or-less the area where our house is located. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| One of the
cacti in our yard is starting to flower. |
All of the
aloes are flowering. You can see in this photo that the flower
stalks are almost 5' tall now. |
The
trees/bushes across the road from our house are also flowering. |
August and
Addie took the opportunity this afternoon to get their bikes out and do
some riding. This is one of the benefits of living on a dead-end
street! |
|
|
|
|
|
| This week Iglesia Bautista Betania is having their 2009
Mission Conference. The theme is "Echad la red" (Cast
The Net). Last night was the first night of the conference, but
our camera batteries were dead, so no photos. But, we recharged
them today so now we have some photos. Tonight they had their
"Cena Internacional" (International Dinner). Members
fixed food from different countries. It was all good!! A
lot of the ladies also dressed up in costumes related to the country
for which they prepared food. It was a very good evening.
During the service the youth performed a small cantata. Addie
had a solo in one of the songs. If you'd like to see/hear it,
you can click
here (Windows Media : 20mb)
or
here (RealAudio : 3mb)
. The sound quality
is pretty low, as they had the music playing back too loud.
Unfortunately, when they turned the volume down the kids couldn't hear
it (speakers faced away from them), so they had to keep the volume up
to keep the kids on track. But, you can get the idea from the
clip anyways. Not much else to report at this time!
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Melissa and
Mrs. Martinez. |
Banner
showing the theme of the conference. |
Sign above
the front door: "You are entering the mission field". |
Some decor
at the front of the church. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| More decor. |
More decor,
again. |
There are
many flags around the sanctuary. |
Aaron &
Braden prepare the video equipment before the service. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| One of the
tables prepared for authentic food. Seen here are some candy sticks
in a basket. |
Mrs. Blandy
Mendoza showing her ethnic dress. |
Mrs. Reyes
showing her ethnic dress. |
Some of the
teens helping out with the decorating. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Melissa and
Alondra Dominguez. |
Richelle
Mendoza and Mrs. Dominguez preparing plates of cookies to give out to the
visiting missionary families. |
Addie Grace
spends some time chatting with her friends before service begins. |
Derren
chatting with some friends before service. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Derren,
Alex and Reuben before service. |
Hermana
Maribel and Hermana Veronica dressed in ethnic clothing, waiting for
service to begin. |
The Betania
Choir. |
Pastor Noe
Mendoza. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Addie Grace
and August in the youth choir. |
The entire
youth choir. |
One of the
soloists in the choir. |
Addie Grace
singing her solo. |
 |
 |
 |
|
| Addie Grace
and friends eating dinner. |
August and
Nataniel Duran eating dinner. |
David &
Elaine Shewfelt at dinner. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Not much new to report here in the Valley. Life
continues as usual, focusing mainly on our individual schooling.
The kids seem to be doing well, with no news to report. I am
making progress with my own language studies. I noticed Sunday
at church I was able to pick up about 40-50% of what was being
said. That may still seem poor, but it's a vast improvement over
where I was when we arrived here in the Valley. I have
electronic flashcards that I use daily to quiz me on vocabulary and
verb conjugations. Right now according to that software I have
"mastered" 919 words out of the 1,593 in it's
database. These are just words I've entered that we use in the
language school assignments....there are definitely a lot more to
learn! I'd say my Spanish vocabulary is probably about 1,300
words, since there are quite a few I already knew and thus which I
chose not to enter. My goal is to know at least 3,000 words by
the time the school ends in June. As for verb conjugations,
that's another story. The software tells me I've
"mastered" 97 conjugations so far out of 1,536
entered. I would be a little further ahead, but I'm getting
stuck on some "irregular" verbs. Any verb that is
"regular" I can easily conjugate in the present, preterit
and imperfect tenses. Shortly we will also be adding the future
tense to that list. But, the irregulars always rear their ugly
heads and throw everything out of whack. For (almost) every verb
there are at least 91 different conjugations. I have 306 verbs
in my database right now, which means I need to learn at least 28,000
verb conjugations just to have those mastered....and there are a lot
more than 306 verbs! Fortunately, it will eventually become a
"habit" to just recognize how to conjugate the verbs, so I
won't actually have to memorize all of that information!! So,
I'm making progress but it is still slow. This week we are
working on reflexive pronouns which has me completely stumped. I
can do all of the "exercises" fine, but then when I try to
do "translation sentences" I stare at the page and wonder
what language they're speaking in. It's frustrating, but I know
it will come.....eventually. Otherwise, things are good
here. We had all of the language school students over to our
house this past weekend for dinner and enjoyed some fellowship with
them. We have invited a family from church out this coming
Sunday, and hope they will be able to make it. We are also
looking forward to the county fair which will arrive at the end of
this month. We are planning to attend in order to "scout
out" opportunities for ministry there next year (we were unable
to get situated for a booth this year). Well, back to
studying. Have a great day!
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Just a quick update to let you know that we received
notification of a new supporting church. I spoke with Pastor Tim
Samples at Calvary Baptist Church in Cedar Bluff, Virginia last night
to confirm. With their support we now find ourselves at
60.55%. This church was a special blessing, as it was 2 years
ago, back in February of 2007, that we were able to participate in
their mission conference. It is always a blessing to find such a
church, who though they were unable to support us when we presented
our ministry, did keep in touch and took us on for support when the
opportunity presented itself. We have been blessed by picking up
an additional 3.5% of our needed support since completing
"formal" deputation at the end of July. We look
forward to continuing this trend. At the present time we have 39
supporting churches out of 167 meetings that we held on
deputation. Although current financial situations are preventing
some of these from being able to partner with us in our ministry at
this time, the Lord has been meeting all of our needs and we know that
He will bring to pass the additional supporters that are necessary for
this ministry to continue in His perfect time. We do thank ALL
of you for your continue support, both financially and in
prayer!
|
|
|
|
|
|
| We had a good weekend here in the Valley. Friday was
my birthday, but we did our "celebrating" on
Saturday....mainly by doing very little. It was nice to just
"sit" for a day. Well, we did stop "sitting"
every so often to eat, but I don't think that counts as work,
so.... Sunday we had another good day at church. The folks
are continuing to lovingly harass me about the "help" I
accidentally gave the girls during the competition last week (long
story, but the computer glitched and gave them some extra
points). Today we awoke to the sound of RAIN. It was a
wonderful sound, one which we haven't heard in over 3 months.
It's been raining more-or-less all day long, so we are at least
temporarily out of the extreme fire danger that we have been in
lately. Unfortunately, behind the front is some warmer weather,
so we're expecting highs in the mid 90's on Wednesday.
Ugh. This afternoon after language school I met Pastor Noe
Mendoza for lunch. We enjoyed some good fellowship but also had
the chance to further discuss plans for our ministries here in the
Valley. First, their is the matter of our commencing a ministry
this summer. We are planning to start mid-week Bible studies on
our property in July. I was looking to see if Pastor Mendoza had
any attending his church from our area, to head off any claims that we
would be "stealing" his members. He does have 1
family, but they are not members and only attend irregularly.
Their is another family that lives between us and his church, but we
expect they will continue to attend at Betania. This is good,
since we won't have any conflicts, but it is also bad since we had
hoped to pick up a family or two to help launch the ministry.
Pastor Noe is certainly open to any families choosing to come to our
services, so that door does remain open. We also discussed the
Latin America Outreach and are trying to solidify arrangements for my
participation in their outreach in Honduras in September. Pastor
Mendoza offered to send a man from their church to speak at our
mid-week service (which will have begun by that point), since I would
be in Honduras with him. He also offered that same type of
assistance whenever it is needed. We truly appreciate his
willingness to work with us in these ways. Finally, we spoke
more about a radio ministry. Pastor Mendoza would like to record
a 15-minute broadcast every week and have it aired not only here in
the Valley but also around the world in Spanish-speaking areas.
The recording studio is ready at the church, and the software/hardware
necessary to create the broadcast is in place. Pastor Mendoza is
going to begin recording some sample messages this week and I will
work on compiling them into a broadcast ready format, complete with a
standard intro/exit. I've also contacted the Fundamental
Broadcasting Network about possibilities for expanded radio options
here in the Valley. There is a good conservative English
speaking station here, but nothing comparable in Spanish. He
does have the option to purchase airtime on other local stations at
about $1 per minute, and he definitely has free contacts in Latin
America. We are looking to have this up and running, with
broadcasts being aired, by the end of next month. That's about
it for today.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Last night at church the kids had a Kids-4-Truth
competition, boys-vs-girls style. The boys
lost....miserably. I don't remember what the final score was for
the girls, but the boys had 0. Yes, 0. Oh, the
shame. Now, to be truthful they did earn points, but
ended up losing them during the competition. Oh well, maybe next
time. Melissa did capture a few shots from the competition,
which have been provided below. She also took a photo of the
30-40 oranges I picked today. She and Braden are juicing them
right now (using the electric juicer Melissa got for Christmas) and
we'll chill that to enjoy tomorrow evening. Melissa brought me a
(very) small glass for a sample, and it tastes great! A little
different than store bought, but that was to be expected. Only other news is
that fires continue to abound. Last night we saw 2 on the way to
church and then another on the way home. They also had a big
fire on the King Ranch (the largest ranch in the country - about
825,000 acres). It burnt about 4,000 acres before they could put
it out. We continue to be very dry down here, with no relief in
sight, so please keep us in your prayers.
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| A bucket of
oranges from the orchard. I'm told that natural oranges are
still a little green when they're ripe. I guess we'll find out. |
Silemy
Torres and Raquel Mendoza pose for a quick shot. |
This is
Addie with the girls in her class. |
Leroy and
Derron. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| These are
the 3-4 year olds. |
Addie Grace
waiting for the competition. |
Priscilla
Ochoa just finished answering correctly. |
August
answers a question for the boys team. |
|
|
|
|
|
| Well, a few things to update you on. First, we had a
good weekend. Saturday we travelled into McAllen to do some
shopping. Because of the distance (about 50 miles 1-way) we only
go as often as we absolutely have to. So, it was nice to get out
and get a few things we've been waiting for (and needed) that couldn't
be purchased locally. Yesterday we also had good services at
church. The evening service was especially interesting, as I was
asked to open the service in prayer. They said I could use
either English or Spanish, whichever I preferred. I certainly preferred
English, but I know that I'm hear to learn Spanish, so I chose the
later. It was my first time praying publicly in Spanish, and I
must admit it was very hard to breathe! But, I got through it
and they said I did a good job, so that's encouraging. I
received a phone call this morning from the gentleman working with us
to get set up for the fair ministry later this month. He still
can not get the local fair organizers to return his phone calls, so we
probably will not be able to get that ministry this time around.
However, we're still working on other dates in other nearby towns and
will keep you up to date on those opportunities. Today I've
spent most of the afternoon (after language school) doing yard
work. Boy was it hot! The thermometer on the front porch
(in the shade) was reading 90 and the one on the side of the garage
(in the sun) was reading 112. I know the actual temperature was
really only around 90, but it certainly felt more like that 112 in the
sun where I was working. But, there was work that needed to be
done. I managed to mow the grass and weedeat. Well, what
little grass is growing due to our prolonged drought. I also
tilled a small area and planted 12 tomato plants. Yes, you read
that correctly. We are past our official "frost-free"
date down here, and so it was time to get started planting. I've
also left a little space for some bell peppers. This year we'll
probably only do those two things and see how it goes. Perhaps
next year we can increase to include some of our other favorites, such
as squash, zucchini, cucumbers, etc. I must say the tiller did
much better with the sandy soil here than it did with the clay in
Virginia!! We've also got a nice batch of fruit coming in.
We've had a steady supply of limes since we moved here in August, but
lately the supply has begun to dwindle. However, those trees are
all flowering now, so we're expecting a new batch is on the way.
Our oranges and grapefruits are also finally ripening. They've
been on the trees for quite a while, but in the past week or so
they've started to turn yellow. We're going to try juicing some
of those here in the next few days as well. I also took the
opportunity today to plant a new cactus that I bought with some
birthday money. Right now it's just in a big pot until we find a
permanent home for it at a later date. I also worked on the back
yard a little. When they installed our new sewer line they
really made a mess out of our yard. I've been busy getting grass
growing, and it was doing very well. For the past month or so we
have kept Bo off of the grass as much as possible, which meant he had
to be locked in his crate when we were away from home. Well, the
first Sunday in February we decided to finally let him stay out again
while we went to church. We came home to find that he had
entertained himself by redigging a sizeable part of the back yard,
where the grass was the thinnest. It actually took 2-and-a-half
wheelbarrows, full of dirt, to refill his hole. So, I'm now
working on getting that grass growing again. I've decided this
time to cover the area with wire, so he can't dig it. We'll see
how it works. He's amazingly good at being destructive.
That's about it for now. I've got to get busy with Spanish
homework now, so y'all have a great day!
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Flower buds
on the lime tree |
A new
cactus that I bought with some birthday money. |
A
poinsettia that we planted in the yard back in the middle of December. |
I'm making
use of the land that I cleared across the road from our house. The
darker area in the middle is the row of tomato plants (they're dark from
being freshly watered). |
 |
 |
 |
|
| A closer
shot of one of the plants. |
Our back
yard is almost back to normal after being destroyed by the
trenching. |
I'm trying
to protect this one spot from Bo, who thinks it's his personal sand box. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Still no information on the county fair as of this time,
but we are still looking into it. Other than that, no real
changes, but I figured it was time to give an update! Language
school is going along, and I am making steady progress. I still
manage to embarass myself regularly, but I'm an expert at that in
English as well, so...... Plans for a missions trip by our
sending church are finding some more definite form, and we look
forward to seeing them again this coming summer. We're also
beginning to work on some more concrete dates/ideas for exactly how
the ministry will "begin" once language school has
completed. Please continue to be with us in prayer that we would
follow the right path in this regard and make the right decisions.
In other news, as of today our 2008 taxes are done. Yay. I
never look forward to doing our taxes. Fortunately, we do get a
refund this year (versus a large payment we had to make last year).
This whole "self-employment" thing is very new to me, and I
didn't make any estimated tax payments in 2007, which really caught me
when I filed in 2008. Last year I made all of the estimated
payments, but our move to Texas and some other "life-events"
really decreased our "income", giving us a refund.
That's a blessing, as we could certainly use those funds to be able to
purchase the kids homeschool material for next year. We also
discovered more information today about the recent fires in Starr
County. Last month the local middle school was burnt and
investigators suspected arson. Well, they caught the person they
"think" started the fire. However, they also
discovered that he did in fact start another fire in the
county.....the house at the end of our road. While it was still
burning I figured it was arson, and now we know that it was.
Glad that they caught him though! Have a great day!
|
|
|
|
|
Home
Who We Are
What We Are Doing
Where We Are
Current Events
Contact Us