Oklahoma

In early October we decided that we needed to take some time off from our work here with the Tarahumaras so that we could visit family, friends, supporters, churches (not necessarily in that order). We left Creel on Oct. 10 and began our journey which stretched to over 4500 miles in 31 days. We knew that the Lord was leading us to do this; however, we did not see how our costs would be covered. We planned our time to maximize the number of people we could visit, but our plans were not set in stone and we tried to keep a positive, flexible attitude.
We visited my niece, Ana, and her family. I loved holding and feeding her new baby girl (who was only 5 days old when we met).
After visiting Ana, we began the drive to Oklahoma via Tijeras, NM and Canyon, TX. We visited with new friends and old friends and we renewed acquaintances. Driving on to Oklahoma our first destination was Claremore, OK - but to get there we had to pass through Oklahoma City, my hometown, and I got us lost very easily. Amazing that after living there for the better part of 32 years, I forgot my way!
We spent 8 days in Claremore with our friends, the Crawfords. Ray & Cathy blessed us and pampered us. Their church replaced the tires on our truck as well as the clutch. They did so much to bless us - through their friendship and by spending time with us. Cathy took Jaynie and me for pedicures, a treat that I had not experienced in over 15 years and one that Jaynie had never known. Ray took Jose Luis skeet shooting with the men of his church. But aside from all of the things we did together, it was the time spent visiting that meant the most.

Skeet shooting

Jaynie's new hairdo - after suffering with straight hair, she decided she wanted to get a perm so that it would be curly. It was a bit harder than Jaynie imagined, but she was pleased with the results.

After leaving Claremore, we headed to Oklahoma City to spend a couple of days with my sister and her husband, as well as to visit my home church and a couple of dear friends who had recently returned from missions in other parts of the world. We also went to dinner with 2 friends from First Church who treated us to Mexican food at Tarahumara's Mexican Cafe. I had been craving spicy food and I got it there. Thank you, Brenda & Terri, for a great evening.

Our family enjoys visiting the OKC Zoo every time we are in the area, and this year was no exception.

Near the tiger area, there is a small bamboo forest perfect for getting a feel for life this way.

Somehow I did not download all of our photos onto the computer before Jose Luis erased them, so these are the best photos of the lot. However, we do have so many photos of animals at the OKC Zoo, the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, TX, and the Living Desert Museum/Zoo near Carlsbad, NM.

Texas & New Mexico

After our time in Oklahoma, we travelled to Fort Worth to spend 3 days with our friends the Freemans. We really enjoy visiting with them - talking until late and then getting up the next day to hit thrift stores, Jo-Ann's, and this year Ardis took us to the Fort Worth Museum of science and history. We liked the Cattlemen's exhibit complete with long-horn cattle. We sat through a stampede and then tried to round up strays. I really liked the challenge of managing a ranch (budget and all).

Jaynie learning how to ride and round up stray cattle at the Fort Worth Musuem Science and History. She did better than either Jose Luis or me. We'll see if she wants to ride a real horse here in Creel!

We also went to the exhibit on Egypt. It was great - with pottery shards puzzles, pyramid blocks, a mummy, and a camel. Siam & Jaynie travelling through the Egyptian desert - looks pretty real, no?

We had so much fun with James, Ardis, and Siam - worship services, daughter dates, shopping, great food, and great conversation. Thank you all so much for everything!

From Fort Worth we drove down to the Rio Grande Valley to visit Fanny & Buddy Ross. When we served with Oklahoma VIM, Fanny became and great friend and support. Six years have passed since we last visited them, and we were glad that we could get down to Mercedes for a quick visit.

Leaving Mercedes, we drove across Texas and into New Mexico. We stopped at the Living Desert Museum to see more animals. I think our favorite place to stop anywhere we go is the local zoo. We don't get tired of seeing the different animals and we are always amazed at God's imagination and creation (sorry no photos of anything more than animals, plants, and trees).

We continued on to Cloudcroft/High Rolls where we spent the weekend with the Kimball family. We went bowling (the second time ever for Jaynie and Jose Luis), sledding at White Sands, shopping at local thrift stores, but most of all we enjoyed visiting with Scott, Lynn, and their family as well as with old and new friends from the First Baptist Church of Cloudcroft. We hope to see them in the spring here in Creel!

We enjoyed the sun (and great cool weather) at the White Sands National Monument. We all went sledding down the dunes and then trudged back up to do it all over again.

Scott shows Jose Luis the cockpit of one of the drones used to test weapon systems. We've never been so close to a fighter jet - it was really cool!

We spent over 4 weeks in the States and the Lord blessed us so much with great friends, family, and church families. We were refreshed and now feel very pampered. Nevertheless, I was so happy to return home to Creel and to the work the Lord has entrusted us with - Thank you, God, for your love, care, and grace expressed through so many wonderful people throughout Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. I only pray that You, Lord, will use us to bless others.

We were on the road again!

But now we are home. We spent a little more than 4 weeks on the road this fall. It was a great trip! We were able to meet new friends, visit with very dear friends, and spend time with family. We left Creel on October 10th and returned home on November 11th. As soon as I can get photos loaded, I will show you a bit of where we went, what we did, and who we visited.
Since our return, we helped with the monthly Bible course for Tarahumara Christians (Nov. 15-19), made a quick trip to Cuauhtemoc to pick up US passport cards (which we applied for back in August!), Jose Luis made several trips to help his mother with government applications and paperwork, and we began homeschool again (much to Jaynie's dismay).
This Saturday Jose Luis will be sharing at a thanksgiving celebration at a Tarahumara boarding school run by the Methodist Church of Mexico. Then he will be going to Samachike for a week of Bible translation work. Jaynie and I will hold the fort down and hopefully made great progress with her school.
On a sad note, my kitten Fluffy ran off while we were in the States. However, his mother Lulu is still here - we gave away all of her kittens from the 2nd litter last weekend. We are trying to keep her in and away from tomcats so that we can get her fixed. No more kittens for us!
Well, I will make every effort to upload the photos soon. I hope that you enjoyed your Thanksgiving Day - what a way to spend in thankfulness for all that the Lord has done for us, no?

Lulu's 2nd Litter

Well, our cat Lulu didn't waste any time giving us another litter of kittens. Her babies were born on September 17th and we hope that their new owners will come and get them around October 22nd. Then Lulu will have a nice outing to the veterinarian in Chihuahua so that there will be no more litters at our house!

DTS Workshop in Mazatlan, Mexico

We went to Mazatlan last week for a 3-day workshop about Discipleship Training Schools (DTS) with Youth With A Mission (YWAM). We spent 6-8 hours each day in class, but we were also able to enjoy the beach in the evenings. Here are a few photos.

The YWAM Mazatlan base used to be a hotel. It is in a great location and the staff is active in reaching out to the surrounding neighbors with different activities. Keep them in your prayers as they continue to make payments on this property - it was not cheap. May the Lord bless this base, the staff, and the directors, Brent & Heather.

The view from our room - not bad for a YWAM base! We had our own little balcony complete with table and 2 chairs. Jose Luis enjoyed sitting outside hoping for a breeze. I stayed inside to hide from the mosquitos and the heat, while Jaynie moved back and forth.

Lunch time - Jaynie and I are on the left and Dwayne, who is on staff with us in Creel, is on the right (along with Daniel who serves at the Guadalajara base and was one of our teachers).

Can you see who is lurking in this tree just outside the classroom where we met?

An Iguana!!

The sand was really coarsely crushed seashells. Jaynie brought back so many seashells and I am just remembering that I need to wash them out and let them dry in the sun - not good considering that we left Mazatlan with the shells tightly wrapped up exactly 4 days ago!

Such beautiful sunset over the waters - although we were ready to leave the heat and humidity, we will miss this awesome display of God!

14 Years!

On September 25th, Jose Luis and I celebrated our anniversary. It is amazing how fast the years go by. We were on the way back from a week-long course at the YWAM base in Mazatlan, Mexico. We spent the day in a train from Los Mochis to Creel - sleeping most of the morning and watching the scenery change as we left the tropics behind and returned to the cool, dry air of the mountains.

I praise God for my husband! It is not always easy being married, but it is always a blessing. I've learned so much over the years and I pray that the Lord will grant us many years to come.

August?

This summer it has been difficult for me to keep up with the blog - how's that for stating the obvious? August came and went and I did not post a thing! So I'll list some of the highlights.
Jose Luis worked with the translation committee the first week of Aug. They continue to work in the New Testament. The next week we received a short-term mission team from Baja California - what a blessing to see that the Lord is raising up mission teams in Mexican churches. This group worked hard in the town of San Rafael. Of course, I was able to serve them by cooking meals.
On the homefront, Jaynie worked really hard with 5th grade homeschool and we finished on Aug. 17, the day before her birthday. Then she began 6th grade on Aug. 19 with the California Achievement Test. It seems impossible that Jaynie is now 11 years old. She stands 5 feet 3 inches tall and does not look her age. But she is beautiful. Jaynie has really developed a flair for drawing, coloring, and writing. She loves to read and to research subjects.
The 4th week of Aug. we spent a couple of days in El Paso - mailing school papers back to Christian Liberty Academy, getting everything in order so that we could renew Jaynie's US passport, and doing a little shopping. It was our first time out to the US since Memorial Day weekend. It provided us with a much needed break and some major family time. For most of July and the first half of Aug. Jose Luis went one direction and I went another. It is very difficult to keep a marriage healthy when you don't spend time together!
Reading through my list it doesn't seem too busy, but it sure felt crazy in the midst of it. I did not mention that I began homeschool classes with Carolina (now a Sr. in HS), Michael(Freshman in HS), and Yoshiah (1st grade) Kaemingk. It is such a privilege for me to participate in their education. I never imagined that God would use me to teach children - may He fill them with His wisdom each day!
As soon as I can locate photos from Jaynie's birthday, I will post them here.

King's Kids

Jaynie attended her first ever summer camp this month. It was an interesting experience (have I said that already in another post?), but well worth the time and money we invested for her to be able to go. She worked really hard this past year in school, and Jose Luis and I wanted for her to have a different experience for the summer.

The camp was sponsored, organized, and directed by King's Kids, a ministry of the Youth With A Mission base in Guadalajara, Mexico (http://www.ywamguadalajara.org/in/es_hr.html). Each day was packed with activities - opportunities to learn, to serve, to fellowship, and to play. Jaynie had to get up around 6:30 am and breakfast started the day's activities at 7 am. Bed time and lights out were at 10 pm. Jaynie's favorite part of the day came at 9 am with the start of the classes. Although the classes were all in Spanish, Jaynie took great notes and even today can still explain to me about the messages that most touched her! She took great care to illustrate her notes as well.

In the afternoons, the camp divided into 3 smaller groups - drama, dance, and choir. Jaynie was placed in drama, and she mostly enjoyed it. She participated in one skit. After 8 days of intense classes and practice, the camp took their program on the road. They visited a local orphanage, a nursing home, and the main plaza of a neighboring town. Jaynie performed with her group the skit of the parable of the sower at the orphanage.She also went with the camp to the nursing home and enjoyed visiting with the residents there.I am thankful to God for providing in an unexpected way so that Jaynie and I were able to go to Guadalajara for almost 2 weeks! WOW, I never would have imagined that we would have been able to do this now. Thank you, Lord!

Graduation

For students in Mexico, summer brings with it graduation ceremonies and celebrations here in the mountains. I realize this is not novel for many. However, in Mexico, there are many more opportunities for graduation ceremonies: from kindergarten, 6th grade, secondary school, and then preparatory school. This summer we attended 3 different graduation ceremonies. First, Yoshiah Kaemingk graduated from kindergarten. He participated in a song performed by his class and after the ceremony we enjoyed ice cream in the plaza in Creel.
On the same day that Yoshiah graduated, the children in San Luis Majimachi graduated from 6th grade. Jose Luis attended this ceremony and took many photos (this has become a tradition and many people in the community ask him to take photos of their children).

Finally, we attended the graduation of the granddaughter of the pastors in San Rafael from secondary school. This was a long ceremony with 70 students graduating. Mixed in with the receipt of diplomas were songs and dance numbers.Speaking of dance numbers, in both San Rafael and San Luis Majimachi, students performed a dance called "the old men" - so crazy and not really a dance as much as it is a drama or skit. But all in attendance absolutely love this act. After each graduation, students are sometimes given rings to commemorate the milestone - just imagine, 4 rings before you turn 20!

Where did June go?

I'm not sure what happened to my blogging this summer, but it is obvious that is has been nonexistent. We managed to stay very, very busy during June with the Discipleship Training School and Bible translation, not to mention home school with Jaynie.

The DTS (the photo is of our students with a couple of their children) graduated on June 26 and by the next day the base was so very quiet. The students returned to their homes, but they left us plenty of work cleaning up after them to get the base into shape to receive short-term teams this summer. Thankfully, we had help cleaning up - Manuel and Adelaida came from San Luis Majimachi to lend us a hand. However, our first group did not arrive as planned and we later found out that they decided to stay in another town in the mountains. But, I was so thankful to have the base mostly ready to receive groups anyway.

As July began, we were actively seeking God and His will for our daughter. Although at the time I was very concerned with her solitude and loneliness - I have since come to realize that I was a lot like she is when I was her age. It is hard to believe that she is just 10 going on 11 when she looks older and acts (sometimes) a bit more mature. Now, I know if you were to look in her room, you would know for sure that she is just 10! What a mess - I am so sorry that I put my mother through such a challenge with my cleaning or lack of cleaning in my room growing up! I have to be more diligent in teaching her housekeeping skills.

I will continue with our summer recap soon. In the meantime, if you have any comments or suggestions or questions, please let me know. Take care and may the Lord bless you according to His perfect will for you this day.

Tarahumaras and birthdays

When I was little, birthdays were a big deal in my family. I remember my parents would host parties for my sister and I in different places in Oklahoma City, like the zoo and various parks or pools. Then, when we were older, our parents would let us pick a restaurant to go to for our birthday dinner. It was always a very special day. Now, lest you think this is a BIG hint for a party or presents for my upcoming birthday, let me get to the point. In the Tarahumara culture, birthdays are non-existent. Many Tarahumaras do not know when they were born, not the year, the month, or the day. And birthday celebrations are just not done - it is not seen as a big deal - unless you were born on one of the big saint's days in the Catholic calendar. If you are a Juan, then you would have a big bang of a time on June 24th; not because of you in particular, but because this is the day when the rains usually come and the monsoon season begins. In many communities, they make tesguino and get drunk hoping to encourage the rains to begin. There are other important days, that are celebrated in a like manner.

I say all of that to share with you a photo from the birthday party for Isaac, Jaime & Lupe's youngest son, who turned 1 year old on April 22 (sorry that this post is so very late!). We had a great celebration with good food, sodas, and cake. I pray that this helped Jaime & Lupe recognize the precious gift God gave them in Isaac and that all of us will thank God each day for our children.

Challenging Week

Wooo! I am so glad that it is Friday! It seems like this week was so very long, mainly because it was filled with so many challenges. I had become accustomed to our routine - Bible study in Los Manzanos, church in San Luis Majimachi or Pitorreal, Bible translation once or twice a month, and back-translation of the God's Story script when I have the chance. Of course, we worked home school around these things. But for the past several months (since Jan.), helping with the DTS has changed our routine quite a bit. I know that this is a good thing, but I am not good friends with change. And now, on Sunday, I will go a bit more away from my comfort zone - Jose Luis and I have been asked to participate in a wedding in Creel. We will be giving the couple a new Bible and encouraging them to establish their new life in God's Word. Nothing like getting up in front of a crowd - I would much rather sit on the back row and pray for the couple.


In other news, Lulu's babies continue to grow bigger every day. They started to open their eyes yesterday. I don't know who we will give the 6 babies to once they are old enough to leave their mother, BUT I am determined to give them away. Jaynie keeps trying to convince me to keep one. I am such a tough cookie, that I will not buckle under to her pressure. Here are a couple of photos we snapped today: the gray kitten is Jaynie's favorite, and I just love the second kitten's preferred sleep position!

Lulu

Lulu gave birth to a still-undetermined number of kittens this evening. The young mother is currently resting comfortably on top of my only black sweater. Jaynie was able to experience the miracle of new life up close and personal. How great is our God!

Hard to describe...

As you may or may not have heard, 1 month ago today the violence raging in certain parts of MX came close to us once again. You know, I never ever thought that living outside of a peaceful little town in the Sierra Tarahumara I would learn to recognize automatic weapon fire. BUT, I can now tell the difference between firecrackers and machine gun fire. A friend sent me the following link that shows the highlights of the most recent violence here. The accompanying article is not accurate with regards to the number of people killed, who they were, and where they were killed. Nevertheless, the video is astounding - it really was to me at least! Keep in mind that on the rocks (about 50 yds from my kitchen window) you can see the security camera that recorded these events. How great is our God and how wonderful it is to know, and I mean know with all certainty, that our lives are in His hands!
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/04/video-of-massacre-in-creel.html

It's a Boy!

Sunday night Rosa gave birth to her first child, a healthy baby boy! He was born at the Birth Center of the Tarahumara mission hospital in Samachike. We are so very thankful for the thoughtful and careful attention of Shelley, the midwife, and her family. New life is such a miracle!

Rowerachi

Yesterday afternoon, after the Bible study in San Luis Majimachi, Jose Luis and a group of men went to the remote village of Rowerachi to visit. It was a very quick trip, but Jose Luis said that it was good that they went. They took coats and knitted hats that were donated for the Tarahumaras. Rowerachi is off of the more-travelled roads and therefore the people there are always very appreciative of anything they get. There are about 100 people who live there and it has its own kindergarten-elementary school. And although I call it remote, it is not really that far from Creel - 21 miles - but the road is horrendous and it takes close to 4 hours to drive those 21 miles! What makes this trip so special to me is that the Christians in San Luis Majimachi see Rowerachi as their mission field. The Christians would like their friends and families to experience the life-changing love of Jesus.

Don Santiago

Yesterday as we arrived in the village of San Luis Majimachi (SLM), we saw Don Santiago working in his field. What a great example to show how the Tarahumara, at least in our neck of the woods, work in their fields - plowing, planting, weeding, etc. Jose Luis' uncles and mother us donkeys or horses instead of bulls. But I could not resist this opportunity.
Don Santiago has been a Christian for a couple of years now. He had cataract surgery at the mission hospital in Samachike before that and the Lord touched Santiago's heart through the ministry of the eye surgeons, hospital staff, Christians in SLM, and Jose Luis. So Santiago invited the Christians to his house to teach both him and his wife from the Bible. Please pray that both Santiago & Felicita will continue to grow in their faith. Also pray that they have a really great harvest this year (physically & spiritually).

A finger, hatchet, & socialized medicine

I know that health care is such a big issue in the USA these days. After living for the past 14 years in Mexico without health insurance, I have come to appreciate socialized medicine. Now, sometimes it can be very frustrating to wait 4 hours to see a doctor at the government clinic in Creel. I must admit that many times I use the advice of Where There Is No Doctor: a village health care handbook instead of going to the clinic. However, after my experience yesterday, I have a new appreciation for the government clinic in Creel.

My story really begins on Sunday afternoon. I was chopping firewood trying to get some smaller strips of wood cut to use to start the fire in our wood-burning stove (our only source of heat in our house). Winters in the mountains of northern Mexico can be very cold and even now in early March the temperature drops below freezing at night outside. So, anyway, I was chopping wood using our hatchet. Jose Luis always tells me to use leather gloves when I do anything with the firewood, and on Sunday I actually remembered to put the gloves on. I was just about finished with my chopping, but decided to chop up 1 more log into smaller strips to have extra for this week (Jose Luis is in Samachike working on Bible translation this week). Then I did something really stupid - I held the log with my left hand while I chopped with the hatchet in my right hand. YES, I missed the log and got one of my fingers! I am so very thankful for the leather gloves - but the hatchet slashed the first finger of my left hand. I went to the neighbors' house to ask them to check out the cut to see if they thought I should go to the clinic. They said that it didn't look very deep. So I went home washed the gash with hydrogen peroxide, wrapped my finger in a wet cloth, and put ice on it for about an hour. It kept bleeding, so I wrapped it tight with a band aid and tried to keep it elevated. Jose Luis had gone to visit the Tarahumara pastor in San Luis Majimachi when all of this occurred. When he got home, he was not very happy with me (to say the least)!

On Monday morn it was still bleeding and I was getting a bit worried. Jose Luis took me to the gov't clinic and I walked into the emergency room. Jose Luis was still not very happy with me and said that hopefully I would get a BIG shot. When I mentioned to the nurse in the ER that I had cut myself with the hatchet, I was immediately taken into the exam room. The dr. checked it out and said that it had already started to heal - I should not cover it with a band aid. The nurse put a couple of strips of tape to hold the gash together and said that they should stay on for 2 or better 3 days. The strips lasted about 24 hours and now the gash is looking very purple with a bit of red ooze. The dr. gave me antibiotics and sent me for a tetanus shot. Jose Luis would get his wish, I thought. But, I went to the other part of the clinic for the shot and discovered that I was due for 3 other shots - Hepatitis B, H1N1, and seasonal flu! So, I had 2 shots in each arm to go along with my cut finger - yikes! And, I have to go back in a month for 2 more shots.

The cost for all of this (including the antibiotics) was $68 pesos or about $5.50 US dollars. Not bad for a morning spent in the ER & gov't clinic, huh?

YWAM & DTS

I have been a part of Youth With A Mission (YWAM) for over 11 years. I must admit that when I met Jose Luis, I had never heard of YWAM before. However, since 1998 when we moved back to Creel to work with Jose Luis' pastor, Henk Kaemingk, at the local YWAM base, I have learned much about YWAM and now can whole-heartedly support this organization. Here is some information from the YWAM website (http://www.ywam.org/):

Youth With A Mission is an international volunteer movement of Christians from many backgrounds, cultures, and Christian traditions dedicated to serving Jesus throughout the world. Also known as YWAM (pronounced "WHY-wham"), our purpose is simply to know God and to make Him known. When YWAM began in 1960, our main focus was giving young people opportunities to demonstrate the love of Jesus to the whole world, according to His command in Mark 16:15. Today, we still focus on youth, but we have members (known as "YWAMers") of almost every age and many of our short-term efforts have grown into long-term endeavors that have impacted lives and nations. YWAM has a decentralized structure that encourages new vision and the exploration of new ways to change lives through training, to convey the message of the gospel, and to care for those in need. We are currently operating in more than 1,000 locations in over 150 countries, with a staff of nearly 16,000.

The Discipleship Training School (DTS) is designed to help you understand God more deeply, live more like Jesus, and identify your unique gifts and purpose to use in missions. DTS is an intensive, residential training course which begins with an 11 or 12 week classroom phase, followed by an 8-12 week outreach. DTS emphasizes cross-cultural exposure and global awareness, preparing students to answer the call to "go into all the world and make disciples of all nations" Matthew 28:19. The DTS is a requirement for applying as YWAM staff, and serves as a prerequisite to all other training programs. The DTS is offered at YWAM locations all over the world. Some schools have a special focus on particular areas of ministry or nations.

If you would like MORE information, please comment on this post or send me an e-mail. Have a great week!

School is on!

We have reached the end of week 4 of the Discipleship Training School - a big sigh of relief! Jose Luis, Jaynie, and I are all still adjusting to the change in our responsibilities and schedule. This explains the lack of posts during the past month.

To catch up briefly - our DTS began on Jan. 11 with 11 students. We are serving as staff for the school while Henk & Edith Kaemingk are the school's directors. As staff, we have some specific responsibilities (leading praise & worship 1 week a month at 6:30 am, Jose Luis attends all of the classes, I am responsible for the kitchen - menu, food purchase, etc, and we help with the discipleship of some of the students). Our day begins with praise & worship at 6:30 am and ends with the evening meal at 6:30 pm. Saturdays and Sundays are a bit different but still busy. We are so thankful for this opportunity to serve God in this way.

Jaynie decided to try to make her hair curly a few weeks ago. The result was one comb tangled in the hair on the top of her head! I could not get the comb loose and had to cut it out. Jaynie now looks a little like the punks of old, but I think that she is beautiful.

India is more than Bollywood!

I have to confess that I have really gotten hooked on watching Bollywood movies. We watch them in Hindi with English subtitles. I have begun to want to learn Hindi. For whatever reason, I feel this need or desire to be able to communicate in Hindi. Pretty crazy since I live among the Tarahumara people in Mexico (not a hotbed of Hindi for sure!).
Each month, our mission organization, Youth With A Mission, holds a day of prayer on the first Thursday of the month. As I was looking at the resources for this day in December (http://www.prayerday.org/), lo and behold I discovered a couple of articles about India - very interesting! Then, I went to the international website for YWAM, and there found an article about a ministry in Pune City, India (http://www.ywam.org/articles/article.asp?AID=756). This ministry, Vanitashray, seeks to practically serve women and children in this area. In reading the information on their website (http://www.vanitashray.org/), I have committed to praying for them daily during 2010. I would like to invite you to join me in this effort.

Surrender

We have been getting ready for the next Discipleship Training School to begin on Monday, Jan. 11th. The theme for this year's school is "Surrender" as described in Philippians 2:5-8.
"Have this mind among yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."
This is such a challenging portion of Scripture for me personally - all about dying to self, not holding on to my stuff, my rights, my expectations. Oh, how I need God's grace daily!

Here is the photo which I used in the cover I designed for the notebooks (for some reason I could not post the cover in its final form):


Please keep the Kaemingks, the Heislers, Dwayne, and us in your prayers as we begin this school with the students next week. We are expecting at least 6 students and maybe as many as 12-14 students (we never know until the day the school begins).