Community Living

I thought this picture is a perfect way of describing our life here (at least it describes what it looks like every afternoon and evening). With 7 families and 16 children in the apartment building, it often looks like a party.

The kids are happy to always have friends available to play. Lizzy has especially found the joy of finding a friend that has 4 girls in her family - "Mom, look at all these girl toys!" I have to restrain Lizzy from living at that house, but she is often found down on the 2nd floor balcony, combing the hair of one of her friend's dolls. Lizzy has come up with more and more things that she absolutely needs to have for her birthday coming up. It's quite entertaining.

The boys, too, have some boys to play with on base this year, and they have been busy playing outside together. They made bow and arrows again, and have been conducting shooting practice. Together with the girls, they've been playing Robinhood and chasing each other all around. We do have to set strong rules for what they can and can't shoot at, ie: you can't shoot at another person or the dogs. I think it is hilarious that kids have a hard time grasping that concept. :)

Ahh.... Normalcy

The other day, I was driving my kids to soccer practice, and it hit me how "normal" I felt. After a summer of insane schedules, no routine, no normalcy, it feels good to feel "normal" again. Okay, so I had to add the quote marks around normal because, let's face it, I am not a very normal person. However, there are moments in my life that I feel normal. :)

Here are some pics of the kids at soccer practice:

Our trip to Puerto Escondido

Our staff retreat this year was at the coastal town of Puerto Escondido. In order to get there, we had to drive over a vast mountain range. Words cannot describe how beautiful of a drive it was. Nor can words describe how sick we all got! We were all warned that it was a difficult road, and we sure found that out. We first drove to Oaxaca City and then drove up the mountains about halfway to some cabins to spend the night. The cabins were, literally, on the side of a mountain. If we took just 6 steps from our cabin door, we would have tumbled down the mountain. It was breathtakingly beautiful, but a little nervewracking for this mom. I love how God uses these types of experiences to break me free from my fears, especially my fear of heights. When we first moved to Tlaxiaco from Oaxaca City, I told Dan that I wasn't ever coming off this mountain because of scary the drive was. But, now, the drive to Oaxaca and back is no longer fear producing, and I enjoy watching the way the road weaves itself around the mountains.

Here is a view of one of the cabins on the mountainside (notice we are higher than the clouds):



We drove 3 hours the next day to Puerto Escondido (we were certainly glad to be done with the twisty, windy, drive through the rest of the mountains). What a joy to see this view when we checked into our villas:

Um... can anyone say paradise?

I guess I should say that I have never been to the Pacific Ocean before nor have I stayed at anything like this before, so this was amazing to me!


Here's a picture of our villa (on the right)


The kids had a blast, swimming and playing in the ocean and the pool at our villas. We had meetings each day from 9:30-2pm and after that, we spent our time playing. One day, a large percentage of our group went on a fishing trip. Dan took Sam and Zach with him, and they caught a huge sailfish:


On their fishing trip, they were also able to see some large sea turtles. It was such a great experience for the boys. Lizzy and I stayed home and had a girl party with her friends - we painted nails, ate popcorn and watched a princess movie.

The whole week was such a wonderful time of fellowship and relaxation. We all had a blast!

On Saturday, June 28th, we heard the news that Dan's Dad, John, was not going to live much longer. How heartwrenching it was for us to be so far away from him when we found out. We quickly found plane tickets for all 5 of us, and prayed that we would make it to see John before he passed away. Thankfully, God not only answered our prayer, He answered it abundantly! We were able to spend a week with John before he died, and we praise God for that precious time. God is so good to us!! Although we suffer through the pain of losing John, we are so grateful to God that John knew Jesus as his Savior - we can say with confidence that we will see John again someday.


With such a unexpected trip back to the States, I couldn't get over how surreal it felt. We were unprepared to be back so quickly, and so it felt so weird to be participating in some of normal things that Minnesotans do in the summer, like watching the children playing in the lake. A week before, we had just gone to the one and only lake around Tlaxiaco, and it had been such a treat to see a lake, and now, we were surrounded by Minnesota's 10,000 lakes. Besides the surreality and the sadness that surrounded our trip, we were blessed to spend some time with our families and friends. The kids, who are ever so much more resilient than us, enjoyed their impromptu vacation. Here are some pictures of our trip:



Mexico City airport - we arrived at 2:30am, ticket counter opened at 4:30.
We were trying to have the kids sleep during our wait, but it didn't quite happen.


The Farr Family












4th of July parade in Ely, Minnesota



Our drive back to Mexico - still smiling after 33 hours in the car (little did they
know that they had 20 more hours to go!)

Lizards For Sale!

"Do you want to buy a lizard? Only 10 pesos for one lizard! If you want it trained, it will be 20 pesos!"


That is the refrain that our children and their friends are calling out to the interns, hoping that they can make money in the lizard-selling business! When asked by an intern, "what kinds of things do you train them?", the children promptly answer, "swimming, walking in a straight line, rock climbing, how to stay still when picked up". Not a bad deal for less than $2, wouldn't you say?

Oh, happy day!

In April, Samuel decided he wanted to be baptized here in Mexico. His decision came right about the time we were heading home to Minnesota, so we asked him if he would like to be baptized in Minnesota. His decision was that he would wait until we were in Mexico.

So, yesterday was the day! All the interns and staff were heading to the local man-made lake about 45 minutes from us, so we asked Sam again if he would like to be baptized and he said yes. One of the interns and one of Sam's friends were also baptized.

Here are the pictures of our time at the lake. By the way, it was such a joy to see a lake - the only other one I have seen is on the way to Oaxaca City (and it is only from a long distance). I sure miss Minnesota's lakes!

Group photo of the interns and some of the staff

Another picturesque view near the lake

School's Out!

Okay... well, sorta. Sam and Zach both finished up their "official" school year in the past few weeks. We are still doing some type of school each day - some spelling, science projects, art, typing, and spanish. So, I guess we aren't technically out of school! But, now we can relax a little more and really take our time.

Lizzy & Zach working on a science project

In the past few weeks, we have collected toads, beetles, and lizards. It's beetle season here and they are all over. Some of us think they are disgusting, but our budding scientists think they are great fun (especially to throw at girls). We have planted flowers, picked fresh lettuce, beans, and cucumbers (we tried to make our own pickles, but they didn't quite turn out the same!), and we have tried to hatch some sea monkeys.

Zach & his beetle friend

Beetles are everywhere!!

Today, we went to a town called San Martin Huamalupan. It has some ruins from 400 bc. The summer interns all went, too, to learn more about Oaxaca and the culture here. We had a great time in the museum - we learned some interesting things. The kids all enjoyed playing make believe in the passageway of the ruins while some of the staff and interns had a cultural orientation meeting.

Sam in the museum at the ruins

All the kids from the base at the ruins

mountaintop meeting

Our anniversary is coming up this Saturday, June 14th. It's hard to believe that has been 11 years since we walked down that aisle. I remember the sheer joy I had, knowing that I was becoming Dan's wife. What sweet and precious memories I have from that day! I am grateful each day that God gives me with Dan. He has been an awesome husband, best friend, and daddy. Who would have thought on that wonderful day in 1997 that we'd be here in Mexico 11 years later? It's amazing! We've been through a lot of hard times, but God has been so merciful to us and has always been our source of strength. Each time we face something new that we don't quite think we can handle, it is when God whispers to us, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness" or "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power." Oh, how precious are His words! It is truly only His strength that has gotten us here.

.

June 14, 1997

Random Photos

Since we haven't updated this for awhile, we thought we'd just show you what our last few months have been like through pictures. During the last few months, I thought often about adding in a story on our blog and I even thought of some great titles, like: "I Went to Hierve de Agua and Survived!" or "Desperation - Garage Sale Shopping In The Snow". But, alas, none of those stories made it on here. Life is so much busier than I plan it to be. So, anyways, here are our last few months:

In February, we moved to Oaxaca City for language school and lived there until the end of March. Here is the house we lived in (our place was on the bottom)

Hanging out with Seve in the Zocalo (main center of Oaxaca)

Sam, Zach & Lizzy at Monte Alban (Zapotec Ruins)

Hierve de Agua - petrified waterfalls

The kids enjoying the view & water at Hierve de Agua

The road to Hierve de Agua - it barely fit more than one car.

It was one of the scariest times of my (Kelly) life. It was

over 6 miles up and across steep mountains. But, we

made it safely up and back - God is good!

This is a very common site all around Oaxaca.

These women are amazing!

A "puesto" at a town near Oaxaca

This is the bouncy that GFM rented for the MTS graduation. The kids

enjoyed playing in it while the graduation ceremony was going on,

and the adults enjoyed playing in it, too. The adults had it for

about an hour - the result? People walked away with torn ligaments,

bruises, and a broken rib. Next year, people will have to sign

waivers before they get into it. :)

So, that is our last few months, not including the 4 weeks we had in the States. We're back in Tlaxiaco now, preparing for our short-term teams to come within the month. More pictures and stories to come...

Our New Adventure - Oaxaca

Here we go again...

Back to language school in Oaxaca City. We have moved here again until the end of March. We found an awesome place to stay - God worked out every detail. We are very blessed with abundant water, a backyard, our washing machine, and a park down the block from us.

Yesterday afternoon, we went in to the zocalo (main square). It is amazing how different it is here now than it was when we were here in August of 2006. It is quite the hotspot for tourists from all over the world. The zocalo was filled with them yesterday. Dan started his class on Thursday, and in his class, there are people from Canada, Switzerland, and Germany. It is so different than where we live in Tlaxiaco that I felt totally out of place. I have to admit, I was a little annoyed at all the tourists (don't ask me why, it just felt that were invading my "home") until I remembered how important tourism is for Oaxaca's economy, so then I praised God for the many visitors that are here right now. Back in August, 2006, we were one of the few foreigners left with the teacher strike going on, and so many businesses were suffering. It is really cool to see Oaxaca's tourism thriving now.

Pictures to come...

Psalm 36:5-9
Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the skies.
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
your justice like the great deep.
O LORD, you preserve both man and beast.
How priceless is your unfailing love!
Both high and low among men
find refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house;
you give them drink from your river of delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.

Field Trip Anyone?

This week, the Missions Training School students learned about community development and how to meet some physical needs that people of Oaxaca have. So, today, the students did some hands on projects around the base to learn how to put community development into practice. Well, my children saw this as something they just HAD to participate in. So, we made it a field trip day out in our "backyard". The students worked on setting up our garden, solar cooking, and digging a second well (here's hoping to some added water - maybe 5 minute showers instead of 2 minute showers?).



Sam & Zach, helping with digging the well




Solar Cooking

Back In The Swing of Things

Well, after a week of trying to get settled back into a routine after returning to Mexico, I think we can say that we have survived the transition period, and we are back in the swing of things. After the cold and the snow, I have to say that I absolutely love the weather here. Yes, the snow was beautiful, but there is nothing like a warm and sunny January afternoon. My kids, however, think differently. In fact, before we left Minnesota, Sam asked if we could stay until the ice melts. Uh... no! That could be May! :)

I have decided I really need to get fit and lose the extra pounds I put on at Christmas. So, I am now walking with a few people from base every morning. I have learned one thing in the past week - I am so out of shape! I am truly glad that I have someone to keep me accountable to getting up early to walk, and it is absolutely a gorgeous time of day to be walking in the mountains. The fog is usually rising up the mountains, and as the sun comes up, it shines on the highest point of the mountain. It is breathtaking. I will be getting some pictures of it to add to the blog, but I know that no picture can capture the beauty. But, I will try to capture some of what I experience each morning.

I am also really excited about what is happening with my friend, S. (name has been deleted for privacy). She is the one that was baptized a few months ago, and her mom was originally against her being a Christian. But, as S. has been reading her bible more, her mom has been asking more questions, so S. is translating it into Mixteco for her mom. Now her mom and youngest sister are coming to the bible study that we have for our neighbors on Tuesdays. I am so excited! I talked with S. the other day about how awesome it will be when we get to baptize her mom and sister. It's such a blessing to me to see how God is moving in S.'s life, and now how God is softening the hearts of her mom and sister. Praise be to God!!