This past Thursday we went to the weekly student meeting. There were over 100 students for a special "fiesta." We met a lot of students that are involved in the ministry as well as people that came for the first time!

Market

We were looking at flowers in the market in Xalapa!

View from our apartment

This is the view from our third story apartment. It is the active volcano Popocateptl which is 17,800 feet high.

New Friends

This past week we have been meeting new students and developing relationships! This past Thursday we went to the weekly meeting where there were more than 100 students! Robin had a great time talking in spanish and Enlgish with these guys and I got to meet Adasa and Kayla who are sisters and are involved in the ministry in Puebla.

Our Apartment

Welcome to our apartment!! It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, office, living room and diving room area with a kitchen and pantry. Little by little we are making it our home.

Driving to Mexico

After four days of travelling, 36 hours in the car, and three nights with friends... we made it to our "HOME" in Puebla... God was so gracious to give us such sweet times on our journey from Alamosa, Colorado to Puebla, Mexico. In many ways we were surprised at how similar driving was in Mexico to driving in the US... and at times we were completely left saying.. "ummm, now that was interesting...", "Never seen that before," " I wonder what that means"... "Do we stop... is that cop following us?"

It was definately an adventure that our hearts were willing and ready to trust God for!

The night before we left we were waiting for our final "go ahead" from our support coach. In faith we spent the whole day tying up loose ends and packing our car... hoping that we would get the approval to leave the next morning. We waited anxiously all day until 8pm that night when I checked my email one last time to see if we had received any news that we could head out the next morning. Right as I began to check my e-mail, I received a new message in my in box with the awesome news that we could leave!!!

We were so thankful to have had everything packed and ready to go early that night so that we could fully enjoy the evening to just hang out with Robin's mom. The next morning we said goodbye and we left Alamosa after an amazingly relaxing and special breakfast of waffles and good conversation.

We spent 7 hours caravaning across southern Colorado into Texas to stay with our good friends Roger and Ronae and their 7 children. It was such a fun night as Robin and I played ..guns with the kids, talked with Roger and Ronae and visited with some dear friends, Tom and Jenna. We had become friends with these families while we attended Summitview Community Church in Ft. Collins and Robin also worked with Tom framing houses there.

The second day of driving was a bit longer and a little more arduous as we trecked eastward from El Paso, Texas to Laredo. It was a long and unevetful drive with not much change in scenary. The emotions of the reality of leaving the US and entering Mexico really sank in during the drive. It was a sweet time of talking and just speculating what life would be like for us when we got to Mexico...how things would look, what we would feel and how we would handle it. I was thankful for the long drive that day to process with Robin what each of us were feeling and to dream about life in Mexico together.

One hour before arriving to Laredo, we began to get really exited.. thinking about crossing the border the next morning... driving in Mexico... staying overnight in a border town. As we drove into Laredo, our eyes were wide open and just taking it all in. We drove all the way to the Bridges where you cross the border and watched the cars that lined up to cross over into Mexico. It was already dark and the busy city streets were packed as people were coming and going. We knew that we need to eat dinner, find a hotel and get some good sleep. Of course we did not end up going to bed until much later than we had hoped, but we were up and ready the next morning to start our journey into Mexico.

At 6am we got breakfast in the hotel, filled up with gas, and drove the 5 minutes it took to get to the border crossing. We knew a little of what to expect but I definately felt anxious. We drove up to the toll booth, paid the $3 some dollars to cross the bridge and then pressed the button in hopes to get the green light which would give us the go ahead to enter Mexico without having our car and everything in it searched. We prayed, pushed the button and got the GREEN light! Thank you God!! We were so thankful... and then we drove off... we almost questioned if it really were that easy... Now... began our journey driving in a foreign country...