A quick laugh...

Click this link to see our puppy, Cody, going bonkers over Tim spinning his wedding ring on the floor... there are no words, just watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4UP5TY6x1A

Here is a video thanking all those who support us financially, emotionally, spiritually, and in prayer!

Thank you! Take a look - we talk about the progress in Hocaba, and do a mini-tour of the mission there!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSNSsqleU_g

God's Awesome Surprises!!

It has been a very blessed beginning to the New Year. God is awesome! We have received donations left and right on behalf of Hocaba from friends and family this past 2010 Christmas! I’ll start at the beginning and catch you up.

The week before we headed home for Christmas break, we had a Christmas party in Hocaba! It was a huge success! There were over 40 kids and about 20 adults at the celebration! We had clowns, free food, and lots of game stations! There were lots of new faces and familiar faces alike! Erick delivered the Christmas message and then fun was had by all!

Now, for the background of the amazing blessing God poured out this Christmas: When Kari and I we’re getting ready to go to Mexico we sought to raise money for the adventure God was taking us one. We raised enough for plane tickets to and from and a little extra for health insurance. Our first Christmas I talked to my church, St. John Dublin, and filled them on what Kari and I have been doing in Mexico and again raised support for us personally. Kari’s church, Hilliard United Methodist, raised support for us there which was a blessing.

This past summer is when the blessings started to pour out. After we agreed to stay in Mexico for a second year Richard and Cheryl, Kari’s parents, decided to start supporting us financially and this again…has been a huge blessing. On top of that Kari’s friend Brittany, who had visited us last year, blessed Hocaba enough money to all but finish the palapa that was in dire need to be rebuilt.

Here is the where Hocaba is currently at. On the grounds there is currently a back building built with sticks concrete and tar paper. That building is a storage place for the on going construction at the church. There is concrete building that Kari recently painted with missionaries from Michigan. Then a new paplapa with a grass roof (thank you Brittany).
Next to the palapa stands a half built church, a project that has been in progress for many years. For the money coming in, that is where it is going. The other big project for the Hocaba church is a water purification plant.

The goal with each of the several missions of Calvary Chapel Merida is to make each of their mission churches self sustaining. One mission has a tortilla maker, Hocaba is going to be able to pull water from an underground river system, purify it, bottle it, and sell it within Hocaba. For now, this is on the back burner until the church gets built.

In the fall, Kari’s sister Laura and her husband Matt visited!! After Matt’s family saw the pictures and heard the stories of Hocaba, God moved them (the Todts) to donate generously to the mission in Hocaba!

When we returned after vacation we were very excited about what God was doing in Hocaba. Between summer and Christmas 2010 several things happened. Kari’s church’s youth group is coming down to Mexico in June to do a VBS/mission trip down here and focus on Hocaba. We are both very excited about that, for them to come down and work…but also for the opportunity to be on the receiving side of a mission trip and be able to plan the trip. Collectively Kari and I have been a part of about 20 mission trips, many of which inspired us to go abroad, we’re excited to pass that along! Also my aunt Laurie offered Hocaba as the destination of the funds raised at their Advent Night event. She gave a presentation to her church which included a Hocaba video that Kari and I made as well a speech about the vision of Hocaba. The result of the Advent Night was a huge blessing to Kari and me and to Hocaba.

Before we went home for Christmas 2010 we started to notice a pattern. People were catching the vision of Hocaba and the work that God is doing there. Each person that came was making a huge impact in that small mayan village. Needless to say Kari and I were stoked when people started to bless Hocaba in that capacity, little did we know these donations were just priming the pump for the blessings that would come during Christmas break. From summer 2010 to Christmas we raised $4,100 to go directly to Hocaba. Over Christmas break we received donations from the following awesome people; Richard and Cheryl, Mary Jo, Katie Wittwer, Britney Lambert, Laura and Matt, the Kirkpatricks, the Streges, King of Kings Lutheran church, and the Armstrongs. Thank you so much!

Also over Christmas break I was contacted by Susan Jacoby, leader of the Sunday school at St. John. We talked about where the tithes that were gathered in Sunday school could go within Hocaba. We are going to put them toward new tables and chairs for the preschool.

Needless to say God has blessed the people that have chosen to give to Hocaba, he has blessed Kari and me to be apart of Hocaba and finally the church of Hocaba! Thank you to each and every one of you. Thank you.

To date, all the money that has been given to us directly and through Go Ministries between spring 2010 till now has gone directly to Hocaba. The palapa has been finished. That includes the materials and also the manual labor to do it. The church building, which includes the concrete for the floor, blocks for the walls, concrete for the supports, roof beams, blocks for the roof, concrete for the roof, water proofing the walls and roof, windows, doors, and electricity will be nearly completed with the money that has already been given by you! Thank you!

Future projects include finishing the construction of the church and to finish the water purification plant.

There is still a big need in Hocaba and everyone can help. Please pray for the people in Hocaba and its continued growth. Keep praying for Kari and me as we continue our journey of faith. Thank you!

We have been blessed with God’s rich mercy and grace! Thank you for blessing others with what God has given you!!!!

A Lot to be Thankful for this Thanksgiving!!

So, tomorrow is Thanksgiving and my heart is truly over flowing with Thanksgiving to God.

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” -Psalm 100:4-5

As this bible verse reminds us, we need to praise God and give him thanks because His love is un-ending. Nothing we did made us deserve His love, and nothing we do can use up His love for us. Praise God for His patience with us despite our mistakes!!

Two weekends ago, Tim went with about 90 men to Cancun for a men's retreat. He enjoyed his time and had nice time away to just focus on God. While he was in Cancun, we had girls weekend here in Merida. Sarah and John were out of town, so Angelica, Nicole, Kristi and I stayed in their house and watched their dogs. It was a wonderful 3-day weekend with the girls! We had Nicole's baby shower on Saturday and Sunday I went with the three of them to their mission in the city of Tizimin (approx 22,000). We had a great weekend having girl-bonding, giggling like crazy, talking about babies, and encouraging and challenging each other in faith. I feel so blessed to be such great friends with such strong, wonderful Christian girls! I am thankful for you Nicole, Kristi, Angelica and Sarah!

This past weekend, Tim and I flew home early Friday and arrived back to Merida late Monday night. It was a whirl-wind of a weekend, but was excellent to spend time with family from both sides, and friends! The reasons we went home was to stand up in and celebrate in Kim and Jim's wedding (Tim's sister and now brother-in-law). The weekend was packed with catching up with Tim's side of the family, preparing for the wedding, and enjoying the fun reception. Then, Sunday after church we drove the 3hrs home to Columbus and had Thanksgiving dinner with my parents, my best friend Jenny, and the Reimann clan. It was fun and relaxing evening! We came back tired from the long hours of traveling, and too few hours of sleep, but feeling blessed to have spend time with family and friends. We are so thankful for God's blessing of loving, nurturing, and caring families!

General Merida update:

God is GOOD!!! We were recently getting discouraged about our bible study in Hocaba. The kids were coming, but were not listening and just very disrespectful. Also we weren't seeing the commitment, excitement or growth that we'd hoped for. So, we decided to change how we go about it. Now, we now longer play soccer with them. Instead we have 2 classes they can choose from: guitar class, or craft class. How it works is that we all come together and I do a very dramatic and exciting telling of a Bible story to capture their interest and teach them about God and how he wants us to live. After a discussion of how to apply to story to our lives, we break into groups. Tim leads a guitar class, in which we are using the school's 5 guitars plus Tim's guitar and he is teaching the kids notes, strumming, etc. The goal is to teach them a few praise songs. The kids that are too young, or not interested in guitar go to the craft class with me. We will do something different each week. So far, we used the beads that Jenny generously donated and made necklaces. These kids were beyond thrilled!!! None of them had ever made a necklace before, nor used beads, so they were pumped! Then, we went outside to leave (and it was pitch dark, no street lights in Hocaba) and the kids went ballistic with glee! Some of the beads glowed and they were stunned and so excited!! It was very cute to see. Last week we used water colors donated by Tim's aunt Kristi, and this week we are going to make ear-rings. The new format is proving to be a huge success. The kids are dedicated to coming since they are interested in the classes, and the deal is that they respectfully listen and participate in the Bible study to be able to go to the class afterwards! We are very encouraged!

Also, God is SOOO GOOD!! We have been praying for Hocaba, that God steps in and shows us how to better the Hocaba mission and get people excited about it. In that prayer, we pray for money to continue construction on the permanent concrete building. God is answering that prayer in very unexpected ways! My sister Laura and her husband Matt came to visit in the early fall. They showed their pictures and counted their experience to Matt's family. They felt lead to give a very generous donation to Hocaba. Then, we found out the the Florida's mission team coming in January is focusing on Hocaba and will also be making a donation. Then at Kim's wedding this weekend someone from Tim's church said they recently donated a significant amount, and one of Tim's aunt's church is hosting a fund-raiser and wants Hocaba to be the recipient! God is Good!

Matthew 7:7: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

We are very excited to see progress being made in Hocaba! We hope that the building can be finished enough to be usable, with walls and a roof by the time we leave in July. The finishing touches of windows, paint, etc are secondary. We pray that with the building in place, the church will be able to grow and flourish now having an area to have meetings and services after dark, or in poor weather. God is Good and will provide!

Thats about it from here!!

Some things we are thankful for this thanksgiving:

1. God's love for us

2. Our salvation because of Jesus' death

3. Our wonderful, supporting, and loving family

4. Our friends here and in the US who challenge our faith and support us

5. Those people who have and will donate towards the church and mission of Hocaba

6. For our puppy Cody!

7. For Kim and Jim's recent marriage

8. For our safety, health, and happiness

here is a video of Cody. Silly video, but fun! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiHPkndVtxE

Updated Hocaba video to come soon!!

Hope you have a lovely Thanksgiving!

Fall in Merida

Life continues to go exceedingly well for us here in Mexico.

Tim and I have started a Marriage bible study with Jeff and Nicole, which, after only 2 weeks, has already proven to be such a blessing. We are being challenged to strengthen and better our relationship by Jeff and Nicole, and hope we are doing the same for them. We are going through a book and video series called "Staying in Love: Falling in Love is Easy, Staying in Love Requires a Plan" by Andy Stanley. It is excellent and very encouraging. It has spurred us on to seek more ways to love our spouse and put them first. Last week we did the study, then went out to dinner and walking around centro afterwards - a delightful evening.

Class is going well too. Tim is loving music, but getting frustrated that the instruments have not yet been made possible and he is still without a room - he goes into each classroom now. But, there is a meeting for parents of band students this Thursday to explain to them that the school doesn't have money to purchase and then rent out instruments so each parent will have to buy their own. We fear that many will not be able to do so and will have to quit band. SO, if you happen to have an old band instrument laying around your house, please donate it!!!!! Any band instrument (flute, clarinet, picalo, trombone, tuba, percussion instruments, trumpet, French horn, baritone, saxophone) would be GREATLY appreciated. You can send them to:

Centro Educative Calvary

Calle 27 #359 x 32 y 34

Colonia san Vicente Chuburna

Merida, Yucatan, MEXICO 97206

In Hocaba, construction continues thanks to the generous support of my friend Brittany Lambert.

Last week we went, we took Erick's car, and well it broke down when we were there. He had to have some of the kids and other friendly people help us push it out. After an hour of fruitless trying, we gave up, and just did the Bible Study. When we came back an hour later, it started on the first try! Please pray that this car remains reliable seeing as it is our constant method to get to Hocaba. And that if it goes bad, that we are blessed with another car we are able to use to go to the mission.

Thursday night "Home Fellowships" which is a fancy way of saying dinner + bible study, continue to be my favorite part of the week - what I look forward to most, and leave the most filled and joyful. Now in Home Fellowship we are going through a wonderful and challenging book called "Spiritual Discipleship" by J. Oswald Sanders. Each week I am challenged by both what the book stays and from the reactions and insight that the others in my bible study share. In particular I have been struck by Angelica. To be honest, when I first met her and heard her share her perspective and thoughts in bible study, I found her very hard to relate to. She was leaps and bound ahead of me in my faith. She was a true disciple, seeking God in everything, in every decision, and everyday life. She trusts him completely and truly relies on Him for

fulfillment, comfort, love, etc. She isn't afraid to speak about Him boldly, tell others about her

faith, and challenge fellow Christians to live more for Christ and follow Him more closely. Over the past year, as my personal faith, and recognition of my need for Christ has grown, I now no longer see her as strange or un-relatable, but rather as such a wonderful inspiration and example. I want to be more like her. I want to be more dedicated and committed to the Lord. I

want to seek ways to continue to glorify Him and learn more about what it means to be a true disciple or follower of Jesus. I am so thankful for Angelica's presence and influence in my life. I think it is no accident that I have gotten to know her and learn so much from her. (Another reason I love her, she and I craved this award-winning pumpkin together at the English service Pumpkin-Carving Party!!)

Also, I can't believe I haven't written about it yet, but my sister Laura and her husband Matt came to visit!! We had an absolutely WONDERFUL time while they were here! I feel so incredible blessed that we have had so many of our family and friends visit us while we are here. Esepcially Matt and Laura. Since Laura is in Med School, we didn't know if she would be able to visit! But she did and it was excellent! With them we got to do lots - we went to Hocaba and Uxmal:.

We went downtown Merida, and they came to school with us! It was fun because both of them got to meet their Prayer Partners (Pen Pals) from both last year and this year! Here is Matt with Mario.

We also went to Cuzama, which has 3 wonderful cenotes, and spent time with the Scotts. Most important to me though, was simply being with and talking to my big sister. I look up to her in so many ways; for her outgoing, bubbly personality which is consistantly positive, for her dedication, committment and endurance in Med School, for the way she treats people with love and respect, and just the overall person she chooses to be! What an excellent trip!!

Cody is doing well and growing fast:

Prayer Requests:

1. For my difficult and troubled kids in my class. I am slowly discovering many that have very difficult home situations.

2. For Tim and my's continued patience and love towards our students on a daily basis.

3. For spiritual growth for both of us! That we'd continue to learn and grow so much.

4. For church growth, church building, and most importantly the individual growth of church members in Hocaba.

5. Our Wednesday night youth bible study in Hocaba - that we are committed, and excited to go each week, and that the kids learn to be respectful, and listen and that they truly learn from it.

6. For safe travels in the end of Novemeber home to Kim's wedding.

Delighted in the Lord

Trust in the Lord, and do good;

dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.

—Psalm 37:3-6

As Pslam 37 promises, if we trust in the Lord, He will give us the desires of our heart. Tim and I stepped out and made the difficult decision to follow where we believed God was leading us and stay another year. And just as He promises, we are discovering that God is filling us with the desires of our hearts and we are truly "delighted in Him." In layman's terms: We never realized all the reasons that God wanted us to stay, but slowly they are presenting themselves and we are show in so many different ways that this is where we wanted to be and we are truly happy.

Staying this second year has already proven to be "worthit" and the right decision. Last year part of our - mainly mine (Kari) difficulty was loneliness. I went from living in a house with all of my best friends, being only a few hours away from family, to being here, yes with my husband, but the friend area was lacking. However, this year has been excellent! Friendships that started last year with Angelica, Jeff and Nicole continue to grow stronger. They encourage us in our faith through Bible Studies and teaching together, and we just flat out have fun!

This year also, Tim and I are especially close with John and Sarah. They are the perfect "couple friends" for us! The boys get along great and jokingly talk trash while playing PIG while Sarah and I never lack something to chat about. We have had so much fun spending time with them most weekends and seeing them at church! Sarah and John are also teaching us how we want to parent. Both Tim and I had absolutely wonderful and loving parents and had and continue to have wonderful relationships with them. Sarah and John do many things the same as our parents, instilling values, teaching discipline, putting their kids as their priority, etc, but also do some things differently that Tim and I would like to do when we have kids. For example, although it is clear that their kids are their priority, they still make a conscious effort to have friends and spend time with adult friends often. Also, they discipline and teach using the Bible. They teach their kids not only what their parents and society expects of them, but what God's standards are. Also, they pray with each of their kids individually at night, and both girls are comfortable praying aloud for dinners. It is fun to see other great Christian parents to learn from them. Friendship is certainly one of the areas that God has blessed us with this year! (we are going to miss them soooo much when we leave)

School is another area in when God knew what was best for us!

As I mentioned before, I wanted to teach 7th but ended up in 3rd again. That was no accident. I am loving teaching 3rd again! I am able to put into practice everything I learned last year! I have improved as a teacher 200%! I know that I still have much to learn and many areas to improve on, but this year is going so well!

I am both much stricter and much more loving this year. I am trying to be firm on discipline to teach the kids respect. Also, I am conciously praying every morning to have God's patience, love and energy to be the best teacher I can be. I am conciously praising each kid every day for doing well and try and touch them on the shoulder, give them a hug, etc to show then love. So far, my classroom is much more orderly and a productive learning environment. I am so excited to have 3rd graders again so that I can learn from my mistakes last year!

I have a great group of students this year. Overall they are better behaved than last years group, however I have many special needs students. A few have diagnosed learning disabilities, speech disabilities, ADD, ADHD, and behavior disorders. These children take even more love, patience and time than a normal 3rd grader. I would like to ask you to please pray that God shows me what each of these kids need to be able to reach their potential, and also that God will continuously provide me with patience and love. Without help from God, I literally can not do it. I tried for months to do it on my own last year. I failed. After about 2 months of failing, I broke down and asked God for help. And He did. Now, I get through everyday only because I am trusting in God to give me patience and love beyond my own ability. He is good and says He will give us whatever we ask for if we ask in His name. (John 14:13) He does!!

In particular could you please pray for Samuel. He has a behavior disorder and is very difficult for me to deal with. He is making sounds or talking or yelling 85% of the day. This of course is a huge distraction to me and all the students. Please pray that God helps him learn self control (Proverbs 16:32) and also self-confidence. Every time I ask him to do the given activity he tells me that he can't. He can. He has normal learning ability and can read and write like all the others, however, for some reason he truly believes he can't. Please pray for Samuel.

School is going very well for Tim. He is teaching all grades 1-7. He loves that he gets to see all the kids in the school and teach all levels. It keeps it interesting and different everyday. He is very excited about the 5-7 band and choir. The kids have already choosen their instruments (though the school hasn't actually purchased them yet), and choir has their assigments as well. For the month of Septemeber he focused on general music, such a tiempo, rhythm, treble and bass clef, etc, and will start teaching the specifics of notes, and instuments in October. He is taking his job seriously and doing an excellent job!

Speaking of excellent jobs, he is a busy man, but managing it all very well! Besides teaching, he is taking 2 masters classes online, as well as 4hrs of Spanish classes a week. He has improved so much in Spanish, and will continue to improve rapidly now that he is teaching his music classes in Spanish. I am very proud of his motivation and improvement!!

We have an exciting announcement to make! Thanks to the generous donation of Brittany Lambert, Hocaba is in the process of building a new sanctuary called a palapa. It is a much more sturdy structure, although still temporary. This is a very necessary change, seeing as the current sanctuary is literally collapsing in. This past Sunday it rained during service so everyone just got soaked. The tar paper is ripping, and almost 30% of the support beams are broken. It is truly a hazard. BUT, a new one will be under construction this week! Praise God for Brittany's generosity!!! God provides!!!!!!!! Below is the "before"... "after" pictures to come!

Prayer Requests:

1. Growth for the church in Hocaba. The kids are staying steady at about 20 kids in Sunday School and 8 in Youth, but the adults that come are few in number, between 4-8 each Sunday. Pray that the families of the kids that are coming will be interested and come as well!

2. Our marriage. Just that God continues to bless us and that we have an unending supply of patience, love, and forgiveness for each other. Also, that we grow even closer and more in love this year!!

3. For Samuel

James 5:16:
¹⁶Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

We’re back! After a 5 week stay in the US with our families and friends, we are back in Mexico about to start a second year as missionary teachers at Calvary. Tomorrow is the first day of school and we are excited to meet our students and start the adventure this new year will bring. Check out the link to the awesome video Tim made about our last year here!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc7XL5uZUrw

Before I talk about the plans for the second year here, I want to say a bit about our vacation at home. It was 5 weeks filled with spending time with the people most important to us, relaxing, and preparing for another year in Mexico. We feel so blessed to have such wonderful families and friends that make us feel so loved and welcomed when we come back! We are doubly blessed in that our two families live only 5 minutes apart. This summer we were able to do lots of things with both families present, such as BBQs, baseball games, hikes, etc. We are both blessed to have such wonderful families and great in-laws! Also, we spent lots of time with college and high school friends catching up on life’s adventures. What a blessing to have such wonderful Christian friends who can be excited for what God is using us for down here in Mexico! While we had a fantastic, perfect, awesome, relaxing, rejuvenating time at home and were sad to leave, at the same time we were ready to come back for another year in Merida.

Now that we are here, we are completely confident that we made the right decision to stay. We truly feel that God was calling us here and we are so excited to be here again! We were immediately welcomed back by our wonderful friends here – everyone from church and school and particularly the Stones, Scotts, and Angelica! We are so blessed to have made such great friends here!

These first 2 weeks back have been filled with teacher training meetings, preparing our classroom, lesson planning, and most excitingly, picking out and adopting our puppy Cody! We went with Sarah to a couple different animal shelters in Merida and ended up adopting our cute little guy! We are having so much fun doting on and playing with him!

We are so excited for what this year has to bring. Tim will be teaching Music. This means that he is going to be starting and directing both a choir and band for 5, 6, and 7 graders. In addition to this, he will be doing sectionals, private lessons, as well as teaching general music to kids in 1, 2, and 3 grade. On top of all that, he will continue taking Masters classes online towards his Masters in Education degree he is working on. He will have a busy year starting the choir and band but is very excited to be doing what he loves! Also, the church is paying for the missionaries who want it to have Spanish lessons twice a week for 2 hrs apiece. Tim is excited to take advantage of these every Monday and Friday evening. He is going to be a busy guy, but will do a great job!

As for me, I will be teaching 3^rd grade English again this year! Although admittedly a bit disappointed to not be teaching 7^th grade English and Biology as was planned, I am excited to be teaching 3^rd again. This will give me the opportunity to really learn from last year and do a better job as a teacher and mentor to my students! I learned so much last year, and will avoid the things I tried that failed, and do more of the things that I found worked really well. I’m glad to have 3^rd again since I already have a sense of what works and what doesn’t, as well as how quickly they can learn new things.

Most exciting about this new school year is that the school started a new English curriculum, which seems EXCELLENT!! We are using the communicative approach which focuses on getting the kids able to communicate orally in English as the primary goal. We will still use all areas; reading, writing, listening, and speaking, but the focus is much more on speaking and listening. The books seem great and gives lots of suggestions on how to get the kids speaking. Also, we are required this year to only speak in English. This will be a challenge because some times when they just don’t get it it is easier to revert to Spanish, but I am going to try to the best of my ability to only speak in English! Another teacher, Monica, had the idea to have an empty jar and every time the kids catch you speaking Spanish you put in a marble, when it is full, they get a prize. It would be a great way to keep myself accountable, and I’m certain the kids would try and catch me!!

The Lord has blessed us so much and we are excited to see what He has in store for us this year!

Hocaba is going well. We went there the first Sunday back and had a nice time catching up with everyone there – and the kids in Sunday School were very excited to see us! We will continue to do Bible Study and Discipleship with the 8 year olds – teenagers on Wednesdays and are looking to focus more on discipling multiple kids. The church in Hocaba is in great need financially. While electricity, lights, and fans were added recently through donations, the current sanctuary is in disrepair and is a safety hazard. The church is in the process of building a church building made of cement blocks, but has been in the very slow building process for over 3 years due to lack of funds. About $7,000usd could finish that church. But, since those funds are simply not available, we are considering putting a new temporary sanctuary called a Palapa there. That would cost about $700usd but last a maximum of ten years. Please let us know if you are interested in donating!

Check out the link to the awesome video Tim made about our last year here!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc7XL5uZUrw