LaPaz - Day 1 Casa Beuna

The Bed & Breakfast where we are staying (Casa Beuna) is like a walled-community.  We have a gate and password protected doorway to enter.  The windows are barred and extra side gates have rolled barb wire.  Inside, there is a panada, the central community area with kitchen, dining area, family room area, and bathroom.  There are the rooms, the house where the owners live, and a church.  All of these areas are accessible from this squared off wall.  The first two photos are taken from the front gate.  Our room is the 2nd floor left room with the balcony on the side.  It's beautiful here, comfortable, relaxing, and puts a smile on your face.  It's just what these missionaries need.
Those who have been here with us before, these photos will bring back wonderful memories.

Micah & Lilly playing with the owners' children - Michelle and Arthur ... and one of the dogs - Cracker.

view of palapa from our balcony

our balcony - I had to add this because Lilly woke up this morning and said "Good morning in Mexico.  I'm so glad we have a balcony."

LaPaz - Travel Day - We're Here and Snuggling In

It's 16 and 1/2 hours later, but we are literally going from our American bed to our Mexican bed.  We got up at 5:30am, our flight left at 9:45am and we arrived in Cabo around noon.  There were a few bouts of rough turbulence - one where Lilly even asked Matt if everything was alright (Micah doesn't like any of them).  ALL of our bags arrived (supplies and all - which is a huge answered prayer because we've been on mission trips where they don't arrive or are late).  Micah was excited because we got to de-plane outside and go down the stairs (he does like that).  We made it through paperwork, dogs, and customs just fine.




We had a few hours at the Cabo airport before our shuttle ride to LaPaz.  We found the other couple (Jay and Carolyn) that was flying in, also with our TEAM group and shuttling with us, and hung out with them.  The 3-hour shuttle ride was relaxing and safe - while looking at the scenery out the windows.  We arrived at Casa Beuna at 6:30pm.


 

Our room - 2nd floor; we have a balcony out the side door

We've gotten some dinner and I've nestled our things into our room.  The kids have brushed their teeth (using our bottled water) and are dreaming happily.  It's 9:30pm - no time change.
Thank you for your prayers!!  Keep them coming through the weekend as others continue traveling and arriving.  Good Night.



LaPaz - packing

The bags are loaded and waiting for last minute morning additions.  We have 3 check bags full of supplies for crafts, games, and decorating our room; 1 car seat; and 4 carry-on bags with personal items.

Sammy looks like she's ready to go too!

LaPaz Training

Tonight it was Matt's turn to share what he's been working on - the music.  He's been listening to the CD of songs, picking special ones for each day to learn, and creating movements to go with them.  In the last week, the kids have been listening to the songs to be familiar with the words.  Now, it's time to put their hands and feet into motion.  (It was a lot of fun - I took video too!)

LaPaz - Fundraising

Fundraising is such an amazing way to see God's provision for a mission trip.  When we say "I will", He says "Let's Go".  In the last two weeks we have been charting our financial progress.  We set our thermometer goal to $4000.  We were at 32% in our January 9th update.  After the church's processing today we are at 92%.  THANK YOU SO MUCH!!



Micah getting to use the calculator to add up new donations and divide for our percentage.

Lilly filling in the thermometer - up to the last section.

LaPaz - overview

Saturday night we went through the overview of the week - our themes, our activities, our agenda.  First and foremost, we are there to have fun with these kids, love on them, and share Jesus with them!  One way of doing that is through our VBS materials.
Day 1:  GO LEAD! - Gideon (Judges 7:1-22)
Day 2:  GO RISK! - Esther (Esther 4-7)
Day 3: GO TELL! - Women at the tomb (Matthew 27:27-54; 28:1-10)
Day 4: GO OBEY! - The Apostles (Acts 5:17-32)
Day 5: GO SERVE! - Ananias (Acts 9:1-19)

Through the week we'll be going through the games, skits, books, crafts, songs, and scriptures together as a family.

LaPaz materials

In November, an Eastside Explorers forum came out from another homeschool mom.  It was titled "Free VBS kits".  It said "A friend of mine works for a charitable organization. They received a donation of about 4,000 VBS packs. They distributed about 2,000 of them, but would still like to get the rest out of their inventory by the end of the year. There are only two different programs."

We made contact and the pick-up location was real close to Matt's work.  We were given several sample packs of both kits.  We selected "STUDIO GO!" Game Show to use and starting January 1st began digging in to what we'd be doing, gathering materials, learning songs, and putting it all together.  God's timing was perfect for us to have this.

Wade Winalot and Professor Wordsmart (Matt & Jodie's skit characters)

 

LaPaz, Mexico Family Mission Trip 2015

I wanted to keep all of our LaPaz entries together.  We are now within a few days of going and have lots to share.
This trip all began ... in September when we started communicating seriously with Martin and Susie Gonzales (SBC missionaries in LaPaz) about returning to LaPaz and being available during their TEAM Missions Conference.  We spoke with them some more when they came to Scottsdale for the SBC Commissioned–the Global Summit - triennial gathering of our international workers in October.   We continued making plans and made it a done deal.

Home Fellowship Christmas Celebration

Our Home Fellowship group had trouble getting a December date that worked for everyone to celebrate Christmas together.  So, Phil and Janice kept their Christmas decorations up, so we could have our gathering last night.  We had dinner, pulled out our 2014 prayer journals, and exchanged gifts.  This group of friends is such a blessing to us!

GridIron - Flag Football

Micah's winter session of Flag Football began this week.  They are now the Tennessee Titans.  They lost three of the boys from fall session, but gained three new ones.  Micah will continue to primarily play the quarterback position.  Their first game was today.  They won 20-6.

Big Eyes Birthday!

Our first birthday party of 2015 goes to Muffins and Ozzy!  They share a birthday of January 7th.  They put on their party hats and blew out their candles.  Then all the Beanie Boos (and there are plenty) gathered around for a party.


Lilly and Muffins

Micah and Ozzy

Gymnastics - Devo Junior Elite

Coach Alla & Lilly

Lilly was promoted to the next level of developmental gymnastics.  She is now officially a 'Junior Elite'.  Her new practice schedule began last night.  She has class on Tuesday 4-6pm, Thursday 4-6pm, and Saturday 9:30-11:30am.  Her coach is Coach Alla.
Lilly was asked to fill out a 2015 What a Year! form to hang up at North Valley Gymnastics.  Here are her responses.

A Little About Me:  Highlights of 2014
Name:  Lilly
Age:  7
Level:  Petite Elite turning Junior Elite
Favorite Skill:  Tic Toc
Hardest Skill I Learned:  vault on table
Favorite Memory:  Devo Meet
New Friends I Made:  Alexis
What I Loved About 2014:  LEGOLAND
Looking Forward to 2015
I Want to Learn:  cartwheel on high beam
I Want to Get Better At:  vault on table
Goals for 2015:  1st Competition





Neighborhood Friends

It's so great - we still had some days left of vacation with the kids in the neighborhood.  While Matt and I unpacked from IN, began putting away Christmas decorations, and started planning for our mission trip ... kids were playing out front, filling the house, and running out to the backyard.  We had several days of this.  It's music to my ears!



Samantha & Lilly

Ben, Kyle, Micah & Aaron

Babysitting Bella

Our friends, the Cline family, are on a 3-week trip to the east.  So, for 1 week we get to babysit their beagle, Bella.  We picked her up on January 1, 2015 - New Year's Day.  The kids enjoy playing with her, taking her for walks, and snuggling with her.

Ears Pierced

For one of Lilly's Christmas presents, from dad and mom, she got a certificate to go to Merle Norman's and get her ears pierced.  She was very excited!!  We waited until after we returned home from Indiana and went to the mall on Sunday January 4th, 2015.  The older lady in the store was so nice and has been piercing ears for over 30 years.  She was totally devoted to Lilly having a good experience and everything being done well.
The first ear pinched and Lilly had some tears ... which quickly turned into enthusiastic giggles as she saw herself in a mirror.  She straightened up for the second ear and it was done in a flash.  Lilly chose pink daisies for her first earrings.  They look so sweet.

Dinner with Trents



The Treasure Tree Friends

Our friends, John & Cindy Trent, contacted us before Christmas to get together before work schedules started up again.  So, we arranged to have them over for dinner when we returned home from IN.  They came in the front door carrying a trash bag.  When we sat down at the dinner table John opens it up and starts pulling out these stuffed animals.  Oh my goodness, it's Lance, Giggles, Honey and Chewy!  These are the characters from his book The Treasure Tree.  We had a great evening catching up and playing two rounds of Skip-Bo.

Micah with Chewy and Honey (his dominant personality traits)

Lilly with Giggles and Lance (her dominant personality traits)

Christmas 2014

This year we flew to IN to be with the Neihardt side of the family.  We got in on Christmas Eve and had 2.5 days with EVERYONE all together.  There wasn't any snow this year - it was rainy and temperatures began dropping each day, but we have lots of enjoyable memories being inside together this year.  The 5 grandkids put on a wonderful Christmas Performance with piano playing, trumpets, dancing, and a reader's theatre of the Christmas Story.


Other highlights:

• Milan '54 Museum
• visiting the Moores Hill Farm
• walking around Cravens Cemetery
• Ice Skating
• Frisch's Big Boy

Yellow Star

This book was very well done.
Yellow Star is a 2006 biographical children's novel by Jennifer Roy. Written in free verse, it depicts life through the eyes of a young Jewish girl whose family was forced into the Łódź Ghetto in 1939 during World War II. Roy tells the story of her aunt Syvia, who shared her childhood memories with Roy more than 50 years after the ghetto's liberation. Roy added fictionalized dialogue, but did not otherwise alter the story. The book covers Syvia's life as she grows from four and a half to ten years old in the ghetto. Syvia, her older sister Dora, and her younger cousin Isaac were three of only twelve children who survived.  After the war, Syvia moved to the United States, married, and only much later told her story to Roy. Since its publication in 2006, the book has received multiple awards, starred reviews, and other accolades, and has been made into a likewise well-received audiobook.