Videos for ministry

Robin has had several opportunities to use his video training for the ministry. For the first time ever, we were able to video tape the speakers at our national conference in April.
During the conference, he was asked to help make promotional videos for the Mexico City ministry. This past week Robin and I spend two days interviewing students for this project. We are now working together to edit seven three minute videos.

The making of our Table

Robin has worked hours on cutting and glueing our dining room table together. It is taking form. We bought the stain and sealer for it this week and Robin is beginning to design the chairs to go with it! We have enjoyed working on this project together. Everyone has been impressed that he has been able to do such tedious work with only three tools, a circular saw, a sander and a jigsaw.

Using Robin's skills...

After pricing dining room tables, we decided to make our own. Here's the design that Robin and I came up with. We are excited to use Robin's artistic and carpentry skills to make something beautiful for our home.

It will be a 5'x5' foot square table for 8 people. In the middle will be a glass piece where we will make a mosaic design out of broken pieces of tile. It will be a piece of art!

Visiting Mayte's family in her home town

Mayte's family visited us in Puebla and we got to visit them on our trip to Xalapa. Mayte's nephews had fun playing soccer with Robin and we enjoyed having lunch in their home! God always provides special relationships and we are thankful for Mayte's family!

Mayte, Tina and Lupita's visit...

After the national student conference, one of my good friends and former room mate from Xalapa stayed with Robina and I for 5 days. We invited her mom, Tina, and her sister, Lupita, to stay also. As you can tell we had a great time. Mayte has been a very good friend of mine for several years and I have gotten to spend several special times with her family. When Mayte's father passed away, I was there with her family and when I left Xalapa Mayte's mom opened up their home to have a going away party for me. I enjoyed them getting to know Robin. As you can tell, they fell in love with him right away! We had a great time laughing all week!

Robin joins basketball league...

Twice a week Robin plays on a team with seven other men against other Puebla basketball teams. They have a record of 6 to 1!! I am the teams faithful cheerleader. I have only missed two games. They play most Wednesdays and Saturday nights. One thing that people encouraged us to do while we were here is to get involved in activities that we enjoy and this definately has been refreshing for Robin. I have recently joined a Spinning class and found a park where I can go jogging.

Robin eating a "Gordita" at the market...

We love the tacos here... you can't get them quite like this in the states...

Eating in the Market

Take a look at the market.. you can get lunch or buy your chicken to take home and cook. Robin and I sat down to eat some "gorditas" which are thick tortillas smothered with beans, chicken and cheese.

We both made it to the Summit of "La Malinche"

An hour later, I made it to the summit with Robin... still smiling after 6 hours of climbing! We did it!!

The "CLIMB"

We found that climbing La Malinche was very different from climbing Colorado 14'ers. The climb up the Malinche was straight up.... usually you weave back and forth and gradually go up the mountain... this was non stop climbing up and obviously straight down too which made the descent just as hard or harder than the climb up. The other difference was that we were climbing on loose soil/sand/dirt. For every two steps forward you would slide back one. So even though the mountain was not a technical climb it was somewhat difficult and very tiring (for me anyway)

Half way up the mountain we decided to split up and allow the guys to go on ahead so that Alice and I could go at our own pace... we reached the top about an hour after the guys. I was just thankful to summit the mountain.

Here Robin is at the summit!!

Preparing to climb a 14,720 foot mountain, "La Malinche"

We were so excited to climb "La Malinche", the 14,720 foot inactive volcano. Robin, Edgar ( a good friend from Xalapa), Alice (one of my bridesmaids in our wedding who lives in the apartment above us here in Puebla) and I gathered what we needed between the four of us and drove the three hours to the camp site where we spent the night in one of the surprisingly nice cabins... We spent the day playing "Settlers of Catan", Spades (a card game) and resting before the big climb.
Here is Alice ready for the climb... machete and walking stick in hand! We left the camp site for the 5-6 hour hike... we were ready for the challenge and were pleasantly surprised by the beautiful vegetation and to see so many others climbing that day.

Working with Charo in Human Resources...

I work with Charo in the National Office. Charo and I work alongside of Terry Morgan in the Human Resource department. I have especially enjoyed praying each morning with her for all of the staff and ministry needs around the country. Charo has such a heart to see women's lives transformed by Christ. She loves worship and right now we are in a bible study by Nancy Leigh DeMoss called, "Lies that Women Believe" with three other Mexican staff women.

Please pray for her as she will be raising additional support this summer. She needs an additional 9000 pesos a month ($900 dollars).