Our First Weekend Back Home

One of the first things we noticed when we arrived home was the appearance of our yard.  It never was anything to write home about in the first place, but now it was barren of grass and had unsightly clumps of weeds throughout it.  This was thanks to a few extremely hot months with no rain, as well as not having it regularly taken care of in our absence.

So what do we do?  On a Saturday when we really needed to spend more time in preparation for our first Sunday back?  Yeah.  We started to turn over the ground...by hand...with a shovel...in the VERY HOT sunny weather...  What were we thinking?!  :-)

 ( I think our beautiful palm tree has about "bit the dust!" )

We finally did get the one section of ground worked over and most of the weeds pulled out before dark.  Just as the sun was setting, we got it seeded, fertilized, and the water sprinkler turned on.  And now a week later, we actually have some little green shoots coming up!  Yay!  Now to get the rest of the yard worked over.

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We had a great first Sunday back in Tapachula.  There were probably 50 people or so there.  It was so nice to see how God has been working in the lives of different ones!

And, they served a delicious meal for everyone after the service!

Sunday evenings we usually head up the mountain to Santo Domingo.  Some of the people who had been attending previously were unable to make it, but we are hoping to see more this coming Sunday.  Everyone else was happy to see us and to meet Jacinda!

 ( Andrea meeting Jacinda! )

( Benjamin and his buddy, Parker! )

Our to-do list is ever growing, but I hope to be back soon with a report from this past week on how our two day evangelistic campaign and baptismal in Salvador Urbina went.  Stay tuned!

We're Home!

PTL!  We have arrived back home in Mexico!

I really didn't mean to leave y'all hanging here without hearing any news, but life got a little busy these past two weeks as we were preparing to leave.  Let's see:

•    April 2-4  -  Michael and the boys got to attend Missions Convention at Penn View while I stayed at home and packed.

 { Jacinda sleeping in the swing while I'm packing }

•    April 5  -  My sister ended up in the hospital with a blood infection.

•    April 6  -  Parker had a birthday!  He turned 3!

{ the boys }

{ Jacinda }

•    April 9  -  And finally...we left in the evening to drive to JFK for our red eye flight to Mexico!

{ Getting ready to leave.  We had 10 large checked-in suitcases, and 10 carry-ons, plus a dog crate and a stroller!  Special thanks to Gratz EWC for allowing us to use their church van and to Steve Miller for driving us!  }

•    April 10  -  We arrived in Tapachula!

After our last few flying escapades, we were hoping for a smooth, problem free trip.  And you know what?  God answered our prayers and we had no problems!  In fact, at every turn and with each official, we were shown extra kindness and given extra help!

When we arrived at the airport here in Tapachula, we were greeted with a good group of people from our church.  What a surprise!  They helped us to get our luggage loaded up and then brought us back to our house.

Now the fun began!  We had no electric and no water.  We decided to spend the night at a hotel until we could get the situation resolved.  Finally yesterday, the electric company came and turned on the power.  The only problem, the downstairs worked, but not the upstairs!  We called someone to come look at our electric box and it turned out to be an easy fix!  So, we were able to sleep in our house last night.

But, we're still having issues with our water pump.  So, we're hoping to work on that today so that we can have water!  =)    **Update:  we had to buy a new water pump - but our water is now up and running!!

What else can we say?  Even with all the issues that come with returning to your field of service after begin gone for an extended period of time...it's good to be HOME. SWEET. HOME!