The Manger

Do you see something different with the manger scene here in Mexico?

Baby Jesus is not there. He won't be added until December 24th!

Christmas Party

Sunday was our church Christmas party. We had a great turn out. There were 29 people there.
We played games...


Ate tamales and watched a Christmas movie....

Look who is in town...Brigida!!

and then ended the night with a piñata!!

The youngest (aka, Callie) started off







Here is a video of how crazy they get into the piñatas!!



They demolished the piñata and scrambled for the candy in 5.2 seconds.
Overall, it was a great night and a wonderful time of fellowship. We pray some of those people will begin attending services on Sundays. Here is a group picture...sorry it so blurry. This was taken after several people had already left.

Merry Christmas from La Esperanza de Vallarta!!

Silvia's Wedding

Saturday was Silvia and Sergio's wedding. It was a beautiful day for their wedding. The wedding ceremony was beautiful and the wedding reception was A-mazing!! It was right next to a river downtown that leads into the ocean. So we had ocean and river view. It was just a dream wedding.Here are some pictures and videos.

Sergio entering

Silvia the mom

the bridesmaids

the ceremony

This is Silvia coming down the isle.



The air was really cool that night so Preston volunteered to take Callie home. It was SO nice of him to let me stay and enjoy the party. I had such a great time and I am so thankful for him and for the selflessness he showed by going home and taking care of our daughter. I love you P.

My table at the reception



The couple looked SO in love the entire night.




This is a picture of the view from the dance floor. Those lights are a bridge that is above where the river and ocean meet....too cool.

It was SO much fun. You could pretty much always find me on the dance floor :) and I was usually with Silvia and Lupita.

There were lots of props and decorations to dance with.
That made it extra fun!

Lupita

Silvia Magdalena

The beautiful bride!!

This is the bride and groom dancing to the mariachi band. Sorry the quality is not that great.


Silvia, tu boda fue un dia perfecta!!! Ojala que lo disfrutaste como nosotros. Todo fue perfecto y creo que toda la gente se disfrutaron su tiempo. Era una novia MUY bonita y una pareja TAN linda. Espero que tu matrimonia sigue con la alegria y amor que te sentiste este dia. Gracias por tu amistad y por compartir este dia especial con nosotros! Les queremos mucho!!

Women's Conference

We had a great women's team who came down here in October. There were 8 women who came on this trip. The picture above is missing dear Dorothy. She had to leave a day early so she wasn't in this picture. In this picture starting with with back row: Me, Callie, Nancy, Donna, Candy. Front row: Sarah, Kaila, Allison and Janelle.

We had LOTS of laughs and good times with this team but we also got a lot of work accomplished. We held 3 craft nights in our home. We had a great turn out each night and we were more pleased with the relationships that were formed.
The last two nights we held conferences for women in a local neighborhood that we are targeting. The topics were grieving the loss of a loved one and raising children. The women who came on the trip were the speakers and Erika from the church, translated them into Spanish. These lessons were VERY good. I was thinking they would be great for everyone to listen to. Preston has uploaded them to our church blog

I have attached the link and the topics below. When you get a chance check some of them out. I am sure they will bless your life like they did mine!!

Grieving by: Dorothy

Grieving by: Nancy

Disciplining with love by: Janelle

Putting rules and limits on your kids by: Candy

Being a Mom in difficult times by: Donna

Overall, the trip was amazing. We are still trying to follow up with the relationships that were made. We are SO grateful how God does answer our prayers and how He totally showed up and changed our lives. Now, we pray for those women who came. We pray their lives will be drawn to the truth and that He will be evident in their lives.

Thank you women from Second!! You will never know the impact you had on the Kingdom. May God continue to use each of you everyday like He did while you were here!! We love you all and we were grateful to have had the opportunity to work hand in hand on the fields together.

Preston and the giant grapefruit

We were walking through the grocery store and I spotted the largest grapefruits I had ever seen. P was with me so I pointed them out to him. His eyes lit up...."can we get one?" he asks. "Of course" I reply.

Check it out:


Here it is next to a large baby food jar

This is half of it in a regular cereal bowl

It was awesome!!

RAIN!!!

Rain, rain go away!!!!

We are in rainy season right now and we are always amazed at the amount of rain we see each year. We can never get over some of the images we see. Here we are the other day stuck in traffic and I happened to have our camera. BINGO!! great pictures at the expense of some poor red car. Check them out for yourself.

traffic jam

we are coming up on the red car which is causing the jam. Well traffic was backed up because we are also driving up a small river!!

the fire truck is here to help

and there it is

sorry buddy, I couldn't resist.
now, the tow truck has arrived

All in an afternoon's rain folks!!!!

P.S. I never appreciate complaining about Springfield's drainage system~~~

Please Pray!!!

Please be praying for my little brother Troy this week. He is entering "Hell Week" for his Navy Seals program.
*Please pray God will protect him physically and mentally.
*Pray God would give him strength when he feels tired.
*Pray God would keep his spirit and mind refreshed.
*Pray for him to be able to think clearly.
*Pray for his friend Swindal as they have each other to keep one another encouraged.
*Pray for his health to hold up.
*Pray for Troy to glorify God with his life above all.
*Pray for our family as we pray and WAIT this week.

This is a huge moment for our family. Thanks for your prayers in advance. We will definitely be proud of him NO matter what!! But I promised him we would be going before the throne of God and asking for these things in HIS power.