Catching Up

I'm SOOOO sorry that neither Meredith or I have written a blog in - how long has it been? - 9 MONTHS!!! I guess that we both didn't really feel like we had very much to write about, but we shouldn't have let it go this far! Maybe the pictures will make up for the lost time. :) Anyway, here's what's been happening:
I think most of you know all that happened with our tickets for the Philippines that didn't work out, so I'm gonna skip ahead to what's been happening while we've been here in General Cepeda. Otherwise, if I tell all that has happened since September, it will be way too long!
 Today marks the day...we've have been here in Mexico for 3 months! Here, we have celebrated: Holy Week, Easter, Mom's and Dad's birthdays, Mother's Day and Father's Day,

& the AWESOME Pentecost trip. We have been very blessed, and I hope we have blessed others in the past months and in this final week we have here. I say this final week because we will be leaving Mexico for Louisiana this week. We feel like God is calling us home and that we are finished with our mission here. Meredith and I are also going to be able to go to FMC's summer youth camp called Faith Camp while we are in the States, and we will be living at Big Woods for at least a few months after that. I'm so excited to go back and see all my friends in Abbeville, especially the Eckstine girls! Two of our friends from Kansas might even come and visit, so we are praying for that to happen, too!

After Mass on Easter Sunday

Our Family Having A Desert Day

About a week before the Pentecost group came, our family, our mission partner Luis, and three other Mexican missionary families all had a Desert Day together. For those of you who don't know what that is: Desert Day is a few hours, or however long you want, just being by yourself with no distractions while spending some time alone with God and your Bible outside in nature. At the end, when time is up, everyone gets back together and shares what he or she felt God was speaking to him.
Well, I went off in search of a place where I could sit and read my Bible. I thought I found a good enough spot where I could be by myself and in the shade. I looked up into the trees and on the ground because, well, I have to admit, I was a little cautious about snakes and other stuff like that. After I gave the area what I thought was a good look-over, I sat down under one of the trees. As soon as I sat down, something stuck into my thigh. I looked and it was a stick covered with thorns that I had sat on. Ugh, how could I not have seen that? In the process of trying to get the thorns out of my leg, I got my finger caught on one of them. At first I thought that I would have to walk all the way back to the van with my hand stuck to my thigh! :) But I broke the thorn off of the twig and went back to my mom who was near the van. She got it out and it hurt a lot less than I thought it would. On the other hand, the thorn in my finger was really stuck and hard to get out. It hurt more than the other half dozen ones that had been in my leg.
All this got me thinking. When I had found that place to sit earlier, I thought I was being really careful when I looked around for snakes. Instead, I wasn't careful enough. Because I was looking for something that I thought might hurt me really bad but that had less of a chance of hurting me (they're probably weren't any snakes around), I wasn't keeping a look out for the little things that had more of a chance of harming me. It made me think of sin, how we can think we're being careful by watching out for the big stuff, and then something smaller takes us by surprise. And then you try to get rid of the sin yourself, like how I tried to take out the thorns, but you only hurt yourself worse, comparing to the other thorn getting stuck in my finger. You can't do it by yourself. You need someone to help you like how my mom helped me by taking out the thorns. That someone you need to help you is Jesus. After Confession you realize that it wasn't as bad as you thought it was going to be saying your sins to the priest. I thought it would take a lot of work pulling out the thorns from my leg, but it really didn't hurt at all and was really easy and quick. It takes more courage I think to do the smaller things like telling the person you wronged, "Sorry" than it takes to confess it to the priest (who is standing in for Jesus). Likewise, taking out just one thorn from my finger hurt worse than the others in my leg. Sometimes I feel like I should say sorry to my parents or siblings or whoever I need to say it to after we've been upset with each other, but I'm ashamed to admit that I wronged them. So I just let the day go by and I'm sorry in my heart, and I try to show that person that I'm sorry, but it would be even better if I said it and showed them that I really mean it. It's the same for when a person tells me they're sorry, but I don't feel like saying "I forgive you" even though I do. That's something I should work on, I guess.

The Pentecost Trip that came down for about 5 days was AMAZING.  That was the most memorable part of our time here; for me, it was at least. It was so good to talk to people my age who speak English! And everyone was so hardworking and willing to help on whatever project they were assigned to. We got a lot done! We helped one of our regular homevisits to get a wheelchair, helped build Tonio's roof, painted several houses, and more!. It was a really blessed time.

Yes, the Mexican people have strange preferences for their house colors :)

On the last night that the group was here, we all had to share about three things:

#1). What blessed me the most
#2). What I'm taking home from this experience
#3). What I'm leaving behind.

1). What blessed me the most from those 5 days was the community. I missed having prayer and praise and worship with others. I also missed my friends a lot when we were here because we couldn't make friends very well with the Mexicans since they only spoke Spanish and we kids have very limited Spanish. So seeing my friends blessed me a lot, too.


Having Fun at the Huge Slides 


2.) What I took from the experience was the realization of the need for a better missionary heart. I'll explain. When we were living in the Philippines, we didn't have a lot of the things that we do have here in Mexico. Things like internet in our house and hot water for showers are among the things that we have here but didn't have there. I think it's harder to give up what you have when you have it than it is to give it up when you don't have it. Like this. If I wanted to take a hot or even warm shower in our house in the Philippines, I knew I couldn't have one. It just wasn't possible. So it was no use wishing I had warm water when I didn't. But because we have hot water here, I can use it, so I do. If I gave up the things that I do have, it would be a much better sacrifice than giving up something I don't have anyway. So I realized I needed a better missionary heart.

3). What I left behind...well, when I shared, I just said my old mission heart.


Okay, I think I've caught up as much as I can. Please pray for us as we pack and get ready to go back to the States this week; and pray for a safe trip, too! Thanks!
~Maddie