Tilaco: Issue 1

For those of you who know me and know me well, you’re aware of my “city-ness”. Yes, it’s a word, I made it up. I have always lived in large cities and the closest thing I ever got to non-city was driving past one on the way to another large city. Let’s put it this way, when I was 18 and moved to Lubbock, I went through culture shock. HA! There are a few people in my life that can validate my city-ness…can I get a shout out from Big Creek, Mississippi!!??!! I’ve even camped out with the church family in Georgia, although I am pretty sure they don’t deem my being in a trailer “truly” camping. I went camping from time to time when I was a child; in fact one of my childhood memories is my family going to Zion National Park.

Late January my dear friend Vero and I were sitting here in the office just chit-chatting and I said… “Vero, I would love to see where you are from. Someday, we need to go to Tilaco and meet your family and see your old stompin’ grounds.” I suppose the first red flag was the extreme wideness of her eyes and the element of surprise on her face when she asked, “Are you sure?” Of course, I agreed without a second thought and then before I could blink plans were made for Easter weekend.

All of this to say that when Ryan, Jaxon, and I said YES to going to Tilaco, Mexico, I quickly became considered. As the days came closer to make our trip, Vero took the time to sit down with me and explain some of things I would NOT see and then those I WOULD. She started using words like; the ranch, the well, no bathing…and then it was me with the wide eyes and shocked look on my face. Sissy me, and I admit it, I cried almost every day before we left. I secretly wished something would come up so I didn’t have to go. However, God is stronger than I am and he made SURE there was a way I would be going.

This is just the launch of a series of blogs that I will do on my Tilaco experience. I will share some great stories and some great pictures along the way. I hope you enjoy. This is a pic of Jax at the bus terminal. It was 5 in the morning and he was NOT going back to sleep. Timbra, this pic reminds me of your stories of Alani at the mall.

Love to you all and remember to stay tuned.

Oh Ryan

I'm on the computer and Ryan's in the living room watching Ellen.
Ryan blurts out something and I ask, "What?"
He says, "Nothing, I was just talking to myself."
I ask, "Why are you talking to yourself so loudly?"
He says, "Cuz I'm hard of hearing."

Blast Off!

So I’m sure you’ve noticed some changes to my blog. I thought it was about time, but the funny thing is that my friend who also blogs, just blogged about people changing their blogs, email addresses, and such. And so, here I am now joining the masses.

The actual reason for this change is because well, if you know me I love change. Ryan’s always laughing at me when he sees furniture moved or the kitchen completely reorganized. My poor guy’s always on the search for something due to my inability to let things stay the same for a long period of time. However, doing the ole switch-a-roo keeps things interesting. There is also the fact that I have never liked the name of my blog or the look of it…so here I go…I’m blasting off into a new adventure with my family and our lives in another country…so why not a new lookin’ blog?

So now that my intro is done…onto to bigger and better things. The month of March kept us very busy. It was full of birthdays, making new friends, seeing old friends, and growing in our work. Ryan preached his first sermon since we’ve been back and is on the list to preach in this next series. He will then plan a series for the men in the congregation to preach. Ryan loves this part of our work and gets super excited.

A couple of weeks ago I started going to a study with three other women. We are starting a Beth Moore study. I’m very excited and very grateful. I long for “girl-time” and just for the opportunity to meet some new people. Please pray for the four of us…Carolyn, Yuli, Hayley, and myself. Pray that bonds are made and that God is the center of it all.

Jax was invited to his friend Piersen’s party earlier this month. He had a lot of fun playing with so many kids and eating cookies that looked like dog treats. We’re excited that there are some children around so that Jax can become more socialized…well, he definitely doesn’t have a problem with being social, but he loves being around other kids.

This past Tuesday we met our friends Israel & Nelly for lunch at our favorite local eatery. They brought along with them a couple and their young son. Paco, Mariela, and Luca live quite close to us and are in the same situation we find ourselves in…looking for a playmate for our son. Luca and Jax are very close in age. We are excited about making new friends with this couple and for Jax and Luca to become playmates. Please pray that we can be good examples to this family and that schedules work out for play dates.

We celebrated some birthdays here in the Benito Juarez congregation this past month also. We had a potluck to celebrate Beta Garcia (Vero’s youngest) and Juan Pablo’s birthdays. We, as a congregation, never have a problem with partying. Vero cooked incredible food as usual and we spent the day laughing and enjoying each other’s company. Later that evening Ryan took Beto to the VIP movie theatre. Going to the VIP is the ultimate movie experience…I’ll write about that some other time.

Ryan and I continue to look for ways to grow spiritually and for extra training to make us better Christians, better parents, better spouses and better church leaders. We were blessed this past weekend when the Iglesia de Cristo Rio de Vida in Morelia invited us all to a Leadership Training seminar. Not only was it a great time of encouragement and of being reminded of why we are here, but it was so great to see so many of our friends that are also missionaries throughout Mexico. Some of them we haven’t seen in 10 years. It was invigorating to re-connect with so many people. Gailynn and Becky Van Rheenen were the speakers for the seminar and were such a great encouragement.

We had a great weekend and so did Jax. He spent the whole day last Saturday in a day care full of children and had so much fun that he only took a 25 minute nap. As if that weren’t enough stimulation for the day, after we got back to the hotel, Jax went swimming with Benjy and Carolyn’s kids. Needless to say, we all crashed at the end of the day. We then worshipped with the Rio de Vida (River of Life) congregation the next morning. It was so uplifting and a great chance to see how some of our co-workers in the Kingdom celebrate their time together worshipping our Lord. Please remember to keep Sam & Ann Gonzales (the missionaries) and the Rio de Vida congregation in your prayers. Thank you guys for hosting such a great event and showing us a great time on Sunday!

We are now entering into our third month back in Mexico. We love being back but we are experiencing some loneliness and definite culture shock. We do a good job at keeping ourselves busy. We have some people coming to visit us soon, which is great since we love having people in the house. Jax continue to grow up quickly. Every day he is doing more and more things. He now says “poop” and “book” and “ball”. His favorite show is “Yo Gabba Gabba”. He gets so excited when it comes on. He love dancing and loves to take rides on the vacuum cleaner. He’s now growing taller and so with that he’s climbing on things now. He makes me so happy and I just have to look at him to see life and love.

We are continuing to put our touch on the house and should have curtains for the whole upstairs up before long. You’ll have to excuse me for not adding pictures this time around, our digital camera finally went kaput, so as soon as get the opportunity to purchase a new one, I’ll play some catch-up with some pictures.
I hope this finds everyone well and as blessed as we are. Pray for this coming Saturday. Starting at 7pm we will have a half-night pray session with the Benito Juarez congregation. We will end the evening by sharing a meal and breaking bread together. Our love to you all!