wedding bells

Saturday, March 27th, 2010

What a wonderful day as Chris and I were able to celebrate the blessing of Zacarias and Yolanda's marriage in San Vicente. Weddings are such a communal event in Mexico especially in small towns. Costs for the couple and their families are keep down as friends volunteer to provide a variety of items for the festive event like food, drinks, flowers. cake, decorations, even table coverings. Yolanda asked me to sew 24 fabric squares in "her color", burgundy, that were used in enhancing the tables. A breezy day resulted in the outdoor reception being moved indoors, a little cozy!

When I asked her two days after the ceremony how things had changed, she expressed how she felt closer to God now that His umbrella was over them as a couple.

A Full Week

March 14, 2010

Wow! It was a full week in more ways than one. Between the 10 classes held, 30 different ladies attended this week's sewing classes filling 84 spaces. Seems like the morning class melds into the afternoon class even though I have 2 hours between the two sessions. With people staying late to complete projects and others anxious to get started, I'm lucky to get a bite to eat for lunch.

The international border was long today, over one and half hours on top of the nearly four hour commute. Yuck. Still, I LOVE my job!

Lori

Blue Jean Purses

March 13, 2010

Aren't these blue jean purses the cutest? (pictured) Alvina, has been one of my faithful sewing students when she's not working in the fields. I've been praying about what product I could create to launch her into a micro enterprise. Well, she is taking off with these adorable purses made from old blue jeans. They are lined with cute prints and trimmed with lace, ribbon and buttons. It seems like the perfect fit for her creativity as each bag is unique.

It hasn't been easy getting Alvina going. She never went to school, and as a result what some of us consider easy/basic skills can be a real stretch, for instance: measuring. She has been taking some reading classes the local govt. offers. Still, it's amazing how many things we really do learn in school and what challenges confront those who have never gone.

Currently, Alvina, her husband, and four children are living in a very small travel trailer (about 15 ft long) while they construct a house for their family. Her husband manages field hands for one of the farms nearby. Things are a financial struggle and Alvina plans to use the money that she earns from selling the bags to help with school expenses for her children and to help complete their house.

If you live near Chula Vista, please save your worn out blue jeans and Alvina will be happy to recycle them into something beautiful. Just think you'll be helping the environment while encouraging Alvina in her micro enterprise. Also, if you have ribbons, lace, button, appliques, zippers etc. that you want to send my way for the sewing class, just contact me.

Lori

Loving Gifts for Lori

March 11,2010
I feel so special and blessed!

Several little gifts have come my way during this week's sewing classes. One of my students, Alvina arrived early one morning, 8am, to bless me with homemade hot chocolate, another, Ana, gave me an orange and yet another, Hermidelia, crocheted a headband. Martha, even gave my hair a much needed trim. It's nice to see how creative the ladies have become in extending their gratitude even though they have few resources.

How the world could be changed, if through the power of the Holy Spirit we tried to out bless each other.
Lori

Sewing Kitchen Treasures

This week's class focused on sewing kitchen treasures. The ladies pictured were thrilled to show off their hanging towels and to sew tortilla warmers, aprons and potholders.

Two of my students, Reina and Adriana, are engaged to be married later this year and made the extra effort to attend even though they had major tests in their high school classes. They were excited to be able to create items to help them set-up house.

I continue to encourage the ladies to invite family and friends especially if they are not Christians or do not have a home church. During sewing class, it was nice to hear students inviting newbies to the upcoming ladies' night at the church. Also, two students from my class attended the church for the first time while I was in San Vicente. (First-timers are asked to stand and be welcomed by those around them) It's rewarding to see the sewing class introducing new people to the kingdom.

Seeing to read. Feb. 2010

Okay, so you can see that I'm a bit behind on the whole blog thing. What I really need is to be able to dictate to someone while I'm multi-tasking and then have them post these. In the meantime, please have patience as I try and get the knack of this. I don't take a computer with me while I'm in Mexico, so it mean blogging once I return and while I'm trying to catch up on lots of other things.

Anyways, the week of health outreaches into the schools finished on a strong note with the teachings and "Carnival of Health" being presented to over 750 children at 6 different school. There are invitations to 3 more schools for the 2011 calendar.

In conjunction with the school outreaches, we were able to troubleshoot reading problems students were having by checking the vision of those that teachers pointed out. Using gospels of John, we had students read John chapter three. Dozens of children received new reading glasses that will surely help with their school work. It's exciting to hear the children reading scripture and seeing the difference in their vision once they are fitted with the correct strength of glasses. I did some translating and also explained to the kids the importance of light while reading (which usually means sitting close to a window during daylight hours) and also how to care for their new glasses. The whole "enough light" issue is complicated by the fact that most classrooms have just two florescent light illuminating the whole room. Not exactly what would be considered enough to ready by.

20 Mar dancing on jello

20 Mar Chris in Chula Vista

SO...
^^^^^Lori is back from San Vicente, awesome stuff going on down there
^^^^^I'm doing all the prelim stuff for Urban Health Ministry in City Heights... meetings, meetings, site visits...
^^^^^Prelim meet-ups to plan the 2010 HealthCare conference, which looks like it may morph into multiple meetings at multiple locations (including Fuller, UC Irvine, etc)
^^^^^Trip back down to San Vicente in a few days, BOTH of us going down, more a relational thing... but relationships ARE the Kingdom of God and all good ministry comes from relationships FIRST...
^^^^^working on the launch of a multi-layered health-care ministry in our local church here in San Diego
^^^^^lastly, Lori and I are running away for a few days to recoup and reconnect.

SO... what is Dancing on Jello? The nature of ministry, of course...

'nuff said. Thanks for following

Chris