Church Service "al fresco"

In January, a team came down from Southern California. Their main goal during their time here was to build a roof over the second story of the secondary building on the church campus.

The project turned out beautiful and the whole church was excited to imagine church services in this open, shaded area during the heat of summer. No one dreamed of how absolutely wonderful it would be!

The first wave of heat rolled in about a month ago and everyone in town pulled out their fans and dusted off the AC's. After a couple of weeks of sweating through Wednesday afternoon prayer meetings, the leadership decided to move the meetings to the "upper room". Last Sunday was our first Sunday morning service in the new location.

The breeze is fantastic and the view is spectacular. The added bonus is that anyone passing by is free to stop and listen...in fact, they don't have a lot of choice!

Ladies' Bible study met upstairs on Friday and the youth will be using it this evening.

What a blessing!!! A special thank you to CCRSM for their generous gift to CC Boca del Rio!!! Pastor Ricardo sends a special thanks to you guys!!!

Mother's Day Tradtion

This is our 4th Mother's Day in Mexico. Wow! Time flies!!!

As we have each year, we ladies piled into our van and headed to the river for a "ladies' day out". This year's lunch was posole (a personal favorite!) and as usual we had a blast! Here are some photos of our day...

That's a serious pot of stew!!!

A special time of singing...

A time of teaching from the Word...

Prayer and fellowship...

Food, of course!

And of course time to just relax and have fun!

Yep. That's why I hate piñatas!!!

The water baloon toss!

We laughed and laughed and laughed...until we cried!!!

Here are the ladies of the church...plus a few! We managed to talk a few of the other moms from the village into coming along with us. A week or so later, Sister Virginia shared at Bible Study that her daughter, Myrna, had been really touched by her time with us. She hadn't really wanted to go, because she didn't think she'd have any fun -- and she didn't think she'd be accepted by the group because she's not a Christian. She was proven wrong on both counts!

Pray for these ladies and also pray that we would be able to reach out to other women of our village this summer. We're hoping to have a couple of women's "play days" in the next few months where we can invite more ladies from outside the church to participate.

Fun Fact Friday -- The Jumping Chollo Cactus

The Chollo Cactus

(also referred to as the dreaded jumping cactus)

Native to Southern Arizona, California and of course Mexico, this cactus is near and dear to our hearts. Like most cacti, the Chollo requires very little water to live. This makes it the ideal garden plant for dry arid climates. NOT!

I've seen gardens in Arizona with this rather pretty cactus, but my first thought is always, "Why?" My second thought is usually, "They must not have kids or dogs."

The jumping chollo cactus received its reputation because of the ease with which the cactus spines detach from the "mother plant". Unlike the porcupine, which throws its quills out, the chollo detaches a small section of itself which is covered with quills. When the unsuspecting victim saunters past, lightly brushing the cactus, the section detaches and the quills implant in the victim. If the victim happens to be a long-haired collie with a bushy tail, the quills tangle mercilessly in the hair and must be cut out. Any attempt by a human to remove them is met with extremely sore fingers...even if wearing leather gloves.

So, why did God create the obnoxious chollo cactus? Well, the cowboys here make a tea from the spiny sections which, reportedly, is good for the kidneys and for the urinary tract. I prefer Hibiscus, myself -- it's a lot less painful to harvest!!!

Mister Linky is having trouble this week, so if you want to participate in this week's Fun Fact Friday, simply leave a comment below and be sure to include the link to your post!

Hope you learned something new today!!!

River Baptism

Baptisms here are a really big deal! Our church was invited on Sunday to attend a baptism at our sister church in Compuertas, which is a small town near Los Mochis -- about an hour and a half away. Several believers had come forward to be baptized. Yeah!!!

Early Sunday morning, we piled people, chairs, ice chests and of course lots of food -- it was a picnic, afterall -- into our van, Pastor's station wagon and Braulio's car and headed for Calvary Chapel Compuertas.

Along the way, we were pulled over by a federal police officer. He just asked where we were from and where we were headed and then sent us on our way. We figured that he was making sure we weren't kidnapping American kids, since the van was full of Mexicans with a bunch of little white kids peeking out the back window. Ricardo and Braulio got a chuckle out of it. Anyway, we arrived at the church without further incident and then took off for the river which was a few miles north.

As we turned off the highway, we saw this mountain. It's hard to see in the picture, but it says, "Jesus te ama" -- Jesus loves you!

Here are some photos of our very full day...

Pastor Israel shared a message explaining the importance and significance of baptism.

The youth shared a skit depicting the things which stand in the way of our coming to Christ and His ability to overcome those things.

We took some time to pray for the 12 people who were to be baptized.

Pastor Israel talked a few moments with each person. While the baptisms were going on in the water, on the shore folks were singing and clapping.

This is Adrian. He's a phenomenal guitarist. Notice anything about his guitar? I didn't realize it until we got home and were talking about his amazing gift...the guitar's upside down. Adrian is left-handed and plays the guitar flipped over. And I was impressed before!

As soon as the baptism was over, the kids ran for the water. We had a huge group -- well over 100 people -- and pretty much had the river to ourselves most of the afternoon. We had grabbed the spot where an old rope swing dangled over the water. After we determined that there were no submerged rocks or logs and that the water was deep enough, the swing became the focal point of the kids' time.

Armida almost went off the rope swing. Just as she was about to jump, her foot slipped a bit and she said, "No puedo!"

Of course not everyone was really into the rope swing. Some people just splashed in the shallows, some played with the volleyball and everyone ate...a lot!

We headed home in the late afternoon -- tired and a bit sunburned, but praising God for a fantastic day and a great time of fellowship with our Christian brothers and sisters from Compuertas!