Altotonga, Mexico -- Yes, my friends, today is Dia del Taco. The first ever was last year. So, go out and enjoy some tacos today! I am!
So last week was pretty calm. It was still vacation time here (well, actually today is the last day for most of the schools) and so everyone was on vacation mode. Attendance in the Club was pretty low. But, that was to be expected. It always is on vacation time.
Saturday night went well, I felt. I talked on Joshua, and the beginning of the book, and how it is a very good analogy for everything that's going on. And, for me personally and God's position for me here (1:6). I focused more on the first 5 verses and took them apart and applied it to them.Then I took the leaders out to dinner, which also went really well. We had a ton of garnachas, but I talked to them about the direction, what I was expecting of them, what they could and shouldn't expect of me, and that kind of stuff. It was a good time, we hung out and laughed afterward.
That night, God protected me on the way home. I was walking home with 4 of the youth and we stopped at the corner of my street, I was finishing telling a story and I had noticed a group of guys making a ruckus, and I was saying goodbye. One of the leaders said, No, Aaron, come with me, we're going to walk Janine home. And so I said, well, let's all go. As it turns out, the guys were saying how they were going to follow me home. So, I'm thankful that they were watching out, and that when I wasn't able to hear what those guys were saying that that youth did. Ok, now, here's my disclaimer. Please don't worry about this situation. In fact, if you're prone to worrying, you can do something about it and pray. Because, obviously, God protects me! :)Well, I've got stuff I need to get to. I hope you guys have a good day and eat some tacos!!
Monday, March 31, 2008
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Back!
Altotonga, Mexico -- Ok, so I'm back. I just finished some tacos and a Coke and I'm sitting back chilling from this last week.We went to Oaxaca (pronounced Wa-ha-ka) with a group of youth and stayed at an orphanage and for about 5-6 hours everyday, we worked at the city dump building a house for a family who has no home there, but who work there. It was a really good trip, and if you'd like to know more, I'm planning on sending out a 'report' by Monday. I do not plan on printing this one, so if you would like an email copy, I'd love to send you one. I'll plan on doing it in a pdf format, which is pretty compatible with everyone's computer. Included will be pics, of course.This week I'll start taking over things at the Club. Originally it was going to be at the start of April, but as the Briles are gone almost all of this week, it'll start now. So, I have a bit of a busy week to go... getting to start putting to business all that has been thought about, prayed about and planned for for the last few months.Well, I'm getting off here. It's been an long week.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
A Day in My Shoes
March 13, 2008 Altotonga, Mexico --
6:10am. No, I don't want to get up. Are you crazy, Janine? You didn't get to bed till 1:30. I stir. Yep, still sore. Hmm... I think I can sleep in just a bit longer...
10:27am-- After getting stuff I needed to get done around the house, I am out the door for the majority of the day. First I go to the post office to mail off 2 letters, and-- surprise, surprise-- they have my phone bill ready. I wasn't expecting it for another 2 days. This is perfect. I walk out the door and go two stores up to the telegram office-- where I pay the phone bill. Next stop-- paying rent. This is an expensive day. I head up to the jr. high and sr. high school where the guy who collects my rent works. After asking some students, I am told he's not here. Fine. Tomorrow I will try again.
10:57am-- Next stop, Aurrera, the new store that's like a mini-mini walmart. I head over to what I'm looking for-- sunscreen that I'm going to need for next week when we're in Oaxaca, working out in the very bright sun for 8 hours a day. WHAT???? 106 pesos? ($10.60) That is ridiculous! I am astounded. Then I consider that I live in a normally cloudy and foggy place. Who uses sunscreen? Sigh. There's no getting around it as I don't want to die of skin cancer next week. This is way more than I had expected.
11:31am-- I am coming up on the door to the club, while pondering the leader's meeting I'll be holding in about 2 weeks for my new team of leaders. Am I covering everything I want to on that time? I think so. I feel confident and somewhat excited as I consider what God's put on my heart to share as direction with them.
2:02pm-- Club time is over for right now. I was so distracted this morning at the outrageous price of sunscreen that I didn't get anything for lunch. I still have tomatoes, an onion, a lemon and some leftover lemon-rosemary chicken and rice from lunch yesterday. I'll make do. Mental note: today's dad's bday. Have to send him some ecards.
3:37pm-- Lupe will be at the house in a bit for our English class. I browse through the lesson I had planned, looks good to me. I organize my thoughts for the things I need to get written out... a blog for this, stuff for another project, a devotional I'm giving next week....
5:11pm-- I'm walking down to the Club. I had to run up to Aurrera again, because I know I will not have time to do that tomorrow, even though it's only 3.5 blocks away. Chris told me that there is, in fact, bugspray up there after I exclaimed about my 106 peso sunscreen. I hadn't seen it earlier. So, I made a quick run up there to get some so that it'll be ready for Oaxaca.
5:12pm-- I'm walking along the side of the Catholic church, watching as a truck decides to try out its brakes. 20 ft in front of it is an obviously stopped car at a red light (I'm still confused as to why they felt it necessary to put stoplights in this town). The truck is going about 20 or 25mph. And..... brakes! The car skids forward and stops about a foot and a half from the car in front. Not bad, I smile to myself.
6:45pm-- The Club is kinda busy now. We have about 40 or 50 kids there, and so I'm making my rounds, chit-chatting with kids and keeping an eye on pool sticks, kids having trouble with video games, kids who want to buy in the kitchen... Zuri, a 15 year old who helps me out, is there with me. Chris left at 6 for another thing he had to do. I'm not worried.
8:30pm-- The Club has slowed down a bit, and as the weather is somewhat nicer now, kids are heading out the door to go home or go to the park. I'm making a mental list of packing things for Oaxaca.
9:03pm-- I just got down walking Zuri back to her house to make sure she got home safe. I see the Mini-Super Hidalgo is open and Karina works there. I decide to stop in to say hi and see how she's doing.
9:24pm-- I'm sitting on the couch. Sigh-- I'm pretty tired. I decide to go upstairs to light the water heater to take a shower. In about 25 minutes, it'll be ready. Until then, I go sit downstairs, turn on the computer and make a list-- Ok, I need to burn the disc of pictures for the drummer of our youth band. Still have to work on some blogs that we're going to put on the new Club website. I need to write on the church website-- haven't done that in a while. I need to work on the other devotional for next week. But I think I may put that off till the morning-- Rosa will be coming over to do stuff around the house to earn a few bucks that she still needs to pay on the Oaxaca trip. While she's doing that, I'll work on the devotional. It's already in my head-- just a matter of writing it down.This is going to be a long night... maybe about 1am or so when I get to bed.
________
Well, that's my day today. It's been a busy week, early mornings and late nights. Tuesday morning I went for a run in the morning, and as I had my mp3 player with me, I didn't hear when my keys fell out of my pocket. So, that day, I took an extra 2 laps around my route and couldn't find them. So, I had to get my locks changed, which meant waiting for the guy to come when he felt like it. I was not comfortable with leaving my stuff here for whoever has my keys to come in and steal it. Luckily, most of my appointments for the day were at my house.Next week, we're taking a group of youth to Oaxaca to build a house in the town dump for one of the families that live there. They don't have a house-- it is really poverty at its definition. That will be a long week-- working 8 hours a day mixing concrete, putting block up, all that stuff-- in 95 degree weather in a very, very stinky place.Looking forward to it! So, if you email me in the next week, I probably will not answer. You guys should be getting newsletters soon-- if you don't receive my newsletter-- email me with your address and I will make sure you get it!Well, I need to get to the rest of that list that is waiting for me. And beside, my water is definitely ready. Have a great weekend, guys!
6:10am. No, I don't want to get up. Are you crazy, Janine? You didn't get to bed till 1:30. I stir. Yep, still sore. Hmm... I think I can sleep in just a bit longer...
10:27am-- After getting stuff I needed to get done around the house, I am out the door for the majority of the day. First I go to the post office to mail off 2 letters, and-- surprise, surprise-- they have my phone bill ready. I wasn't expecting it for another 2 days. This is perfect. I walk out the door and go two stores up to the telegram office-- where I pay the phone bill. Next stop-- paying rent. This is an expensive day. I head up to the jr. high and sr. high school where the guy who collects my rent works. After asking some students, I am told he's not here. Fine. Tomorrow I will try again.
10:57am-- Next stop, Aurrera, the new store that's like a mini-mini walmart. I head over to what I'm looking for-- sunscreen that I'm going to need for next week when we're in Oaxaca, working out in the very bright sun for 8 hours a day. WHAT???? 106 pesos? ($10.60) That is ridiculous! I am astounded. Then I consider that I live in a normally cloudy and foggy place. Who uses sunscreen? Sigh. There's no getting around it as I don't want to die of skin cancer next week. This is way more than I had expected.
11:31am-- I am coming up on the door to the club, while pondering the leader's meeting I'll be holding in about 2 weeks for my new team of leaders. Am I covering everything I want to on that time? I think so. I feel confident and somewhat excited as I consider what God's put on my heart to share as direction with them.
2:02pm-- Club time is over for right now. I was so distracted this morning at the outrageous price of sunscreen that I didn't get anything for lunch. I still have tomatoes, an onion, a lemon and some leftover lemon-rosemary chicken and rice from lunch yesterday. I'll make do. Mental note: today's dad's bday. Have to send him some ecards.
3:37pm-- Lupe will be at the house in a bit for our English class. I browse through the lesson I had planned, looks good to me. I organize my thoughts for the things I need to get written out... a blog for this, stuff for another project, a devotional I'm giving next week....
5:11pm-- I'm walking down to the Club. I had to run up to Aurrera again, because I know I will not have time to do that tomorrow, even though it's only 3.5 blocks away. Chris told me that there is, in fact, bugspray up there after I exclaimed about my 106 peso sunscreen. I hadn't seen it earlier. So, I made a quick run up there to get some so that it'll be ready for Oaxaca.
5:12pm-- I'm walking along the side of the Catholic church, watching as a truck decides to try out its brakes. 20 ft in front of it is an obviously stopped car at a red light (I'm still confused as to why they felt it necessary to put stoplights in this town). The truck is going about 20 or 25mph. And..... brakes! The car skids forward and stops about a foot and a half from the car in front. Not bad, I smile to myself.
6:45pm-- The Club is kinda busy now. We have about 40 or 50 kids there, and so I'm making my rounds, chit-chatting with kids and keeping an eye on pool sticks, kids having trouble with video games, kids who want to buy in the kitchen... Zuri, a 15 year old who helps me out, is there with me. Chris left at 6 for another thing he had to do. I'm not worried.
8:30pm-- The Club has slowed down a bit, and as the weather is somewhat nicer now, kids are heading out the door to go home or go to the park. I'm making a mental list of packing things for Oaxaca.
9:03pm-- I just got down walking Zuri back to her house to make sure she got home safe. I see the Mini-Super Hidalgo is open and Karina works there. I decide to stop in to say hi and see how she's doing.
9:24pm-- I'm sitting on the couch. Sigh-- I'm pretty tired. I decide to go upstairs to light the water heater to take a shower. In about 25 minutes, it'll be ready. Until then, I go sit downstairs, turn on the computer and make a list-- Ok, I need to burn the disc of pictures for the drummer of our youth band. Still have to work on some blogs that we're going to put on the new Club website. I need to write on the church website-- haven't done that in a while. I need to work on the other devotional for next week. But I think I may put that off till the morning-- Rosa will be coming over to do stuff around the house to earn a few bucks that she still needs to pay on the Oaxaca trip. While she's doing that, I'll work on the devotional. It's already in my head-- just a matter of writing it down.This is going to be a long night... maybe about 1am or so when I get to bed.
________
Well, that's my day today. It's been a busy week, early mornings and late nights. Tuesday morning I went for a run in the morning, and as I had my mp3 player with me, I didn't hear when my keys fell out of my pocket. So, that day, I took an extra 2 laps around my route and couldn't find them. So, I had to get my locks changed, which meant waiting for the guy to come when he felt like it. I was not comfortable with leaving my stuff here for whoever has my keys to come in and steal it. Luckily, most of my appointments for the day were at my house.Next week, we're taking a group of youth to Oaxaca to build a house in the town dump for one of the families that live there. They don't have a house-- it is really poverty at its definition. That will be a long week-- working 8 hours a day mixing concrete, putting block up, all that stuff-- in 95 degree weather in a very, very stinky place.Looking forward to it! So, if you email me in the next week, I probably will not answer. You guys should be getting newsletters soon-- if you don't receive my newsletter-- email me with your address and I will make sure you get it!Well, I need to get to the rest of that list that is waiting for me. And beside, my water is definitely ready. Have a great weekend, guys!
Friday, March 7, 2008
2 Busy Weeks
March 7, 2008Altotonga, Mexico -- Alright everyone, check out this video that Zona 7 put together of their time here in Altotonga. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AEbazz_hKgWell, it's been taking me a couple of days to get back into the swing of things. I was just starting to get into the swing of being an American when I had to come back.Right now, we're doing the usual-- I don't have dance classes starting until April... and in a little over a week, we're going to Oaxaca on the missions trip.Well, it was great to see you guys last week-- I certainly enjoyed it, and enjoyed the time that I had with my family. I'm looking forward to seeing you again in August!I need to run... busy day today!Take care!
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