Thankfull for God's Protection

100 Days of Thankfulness

I am thankful for the Lord's protection. This last week I went up to San Diego to get my car smogged, run some errands and meet up with a friend. Finding a smog station that was open took me forever so it put all my errands behind. (My car failed smog on three accounts.) It's not a smart idea to drive on Mexican highways at night, especially when you are a single white American girl with only so-so Spanish. I consolidated my shopping lists and tried to get accomplished as much as I could. As I picked up my co-op order I knew I was pushing the limits but I couldn't leave my things at the drop off house. I briefly thought about calling one of my directors and asking permission to stay the night at a friend's house. I decided against it and headed for the boarder. I crossed the boarder noticed I was low on gas, added some to my tank and went on my way. By this time twilight was creeping in and I had an hour more to still drive on highway that is under construction. A few miles past the city I look down at my dash board and was that my car was overheated. The dial (or whatever you call it) was within a milometer from the hot line. I pulled over to the shoulder and turned on my emergency flashers. I called another director, Eddie and he told me to stay where I was and that he would be there is 45 minutes. Then he called back and told me one of his friends who lived near by was going to come and find me but needed to know where I was. I haven't made this drive in such a long time that I didn't know where I really was. By now it was DARK. I called a couple friends to pray for me and to keep my mind distracted. Pray and chattering out of fear and nerves.

About an hour later I called my dad because I realized "What if?". What if something happened to me I would at least like to least like to hear his voice and let him know that I loved him, and say high to my mom and sister as well. Right as I was calling him Eddie's friends showed up. By this point I already had my dad freaked out, then I tell him I have to go because I'm being rescued by some Mexican men that I don't know. I thought I hung up with him but I didn't so Dad heard me talking to some men in broken Spanish trying to explain what was wrong. Then I realized he was still on the line so I let him know that I was following then back to their house to wait for Eddie. Which was one minute from where I had been waiting. The rest of the story to follow.....

Estoy en Mexico

Hello All, it's been awhile. After a summer of traversing the world, (the east coast and Israel) I am glad be be back in Mexico. It's been a week of meetings, cleaning and spending time with friends old and new. All our kids start coming back on September 1st. We are excited for them to come! This year we are going to have 25 boys and 12 girls! Be praying that the Lord will bring more girls to the Ranch, we still have room for 6 more. I would love to see those beds filled so that we can reach more girls for Christ and give them a language. At the same time I am looking forward to forming deeper relationships with the ones that we have now. Be praying for the two dorm dads, Mark and Ray as well. Caring for 25 boys is no easy task. With God's strength we will all press on. I can looking forward to see what he will do in the lives of our children and staff this year. 

LSM Creation to Church RSM

This year at our school we started a training center. Some of our older students are have been learning how to have a deeper with Jesus and how to teach other Deaf about Him. We are in the process of making videos that will teach through the Bible and share who Christ is. We hope for them to be a way for Mexican Deaf to learn about Jesus and teach other Deaf about him. This is Jose Antonio giving a breif summery of the Bible from Creation to the start of the church. The video is in MSL (Mexican Sign Language. Sorry, right now there are no subtitiles, we hope to add Spaninsh and English ones soon.

Kimchi

I couple months ago two of my girls, Yahaira and Lesly and I made kimchi. I love that stuff. We had alot of fun using the Chow Hall kitchen instead of my tiny makeshift  kitchen in our dorm room where all 18 of us, yes you got that right, 18 live. Making a large amount of lacto-ferments is just more than our  dorm can handle. Some of my girls loved the kimchi, others wouldn't even go near it. I think it's amazing. My goal is to make a differnet lacto-ferment to go with every type of meal. So I guess that means I will be sharing a lot of lacto-fermetnts in the near future. My recipe is based off of Nourishing Traditions veriation of kimchi. 

Kimchi

1 large head of cabbage, shredded

1 bunch green onions, chopped

1 cup carrots, grated

1/2 cup white radishes (I can't remember what kind I grew this year), grated

2 TBS freshly grated ginger

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tsp dried chilie flakes

1 TBS of sea salt (Real Salt or Celtic Salt are prefered)

4 TBS of whey (if you don't have whey use an additional 1 TBS of salt)

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl. Pound with a wooden pounder or whatever you can find, I used a rolling pin for about 10 minutes to release the juices. The mixture will fill two quart size jars. Be sure that the mixture is at least one inch below the top of the jars. Cover tightly and leave at room temperature. After three days transfer the kimchi to cool storage normally the top shelf of the fridge unless you are luck enough to have a root cellar. 

This post is part of Hearth and Soul

Saying Goodbye

Marisol, my girl that just turned 20 left last week after recently finishing secondary school to serve at Colegio Christiano Magdalena Rincon, a school for  Deaf, disabled and at risk children. I am so proud of her and happy for her! Currently she is helping in the class room and the dorm. I had to tease her about helping in the dorm since I took care of her in our dorm for six years. :) I told her, "now you know how I feel sometimes" when we were skyping the other day. I am so thrilled to see how God is going use her to minister to the Deaf!

Please be Praying:

Her health, right now she is sick
To have quality time with God
Love and wisdom as she cares for the girls and helps in the class
Support, she is currently in need of more supporters
Homesickness, for the Ranch and her own family

Mission Minded

This song is very dear to my heart. It is a powerful reminder of what we are called to do, declare  Jesus Christ to the nations. I went to a small Christian high school, with a class of 45. "You Said" was one of our favorite songs. When the year was almost over and the seniors led one of the last chapels we picked this song. Ministry, going out and sharing about how Jesus has changed our lives is what many now are doing. We are mission minded, we've gone to to seminary,  are actively involved in our churches and serve as missionaries in Uganda and Mexico. 

Rain Boots!

We had an early Christmas present arrive for the girls a couple weeks ago. Some of my wonderful supporters sent rain boots for every girl. They were so excited to open up their gift bags. What a blessing these will be as the rains continue. We had fun jumping in puddles right after we opened them.