I know that everyone has been curious as to what am I really doing while in Mexico and, sadly enough, my first blog did not inform anyone very well on this subject. I will try to give everyone, however a little bit of a better idea of what my days look like and post a few photos. First most every day begins at 6:30 am when we all go out and do our "team" exercises. Which (I'm about to play informant!!) sometimes consist of sleeping into 7 and doing a whopping four stretches. But I am going to redeem my reputation by saying that this is only on nights that go extremely late with deliverance and other spiritual experiences (except for last night in which the cause was a dance party to the 80's music and the wonderful ecstasy of eating chocolate cake and brownies, otherwise every other reason has been completely valid, except on those one or two occasions where...). Anyway suffice it to say that some "people" here love their sleep and only on a few occasions have I counted myself among them. After this we all enjoy quiet time with the Father and breakfast of cereal, and let me add that our slim diet of cereal every morning has horrified our cook Gilbert and he has promised to delight our taste buds with a real Mexican breakfast at some later date....no one made any complaints to that proposal!!!After this we all either file in for team discussion at 9 or we go off to do ministry. Ministry changes every week. These past two weeks we have been blessed by getting to visit an local orphanage and play with the kids (my favorite ministry by far and I hope to be able to visit again very soon) and this week it has been working on cleaning the upcoming MTI (Missions Training Institute) building site for construction in Matamoras. If we stay for team discussion than it means we will not be doing ministry but instead will be either going in for a Spanish lesson or some other session. In the afternoon, we usually have free time for an hour and than each team goes to visit their ministry host family. My team's family consist of the mother Griece who is 24 years old and her two children Estrella who is 6 and Oscar who just turned 1 on October 5th. She also has a husband who is 28 but we have not had the pleasure of meeting him since he works long hours at a factory every day. The language barrier has been hard while visiting with them because they know no English and our Spanish is very minimal, my own knowledge of the language is zip. So many of our afternoons can be awkward but between Nadia, Alison, and Kathleen (my fellow team mates) some conversation can be kept up. Also we have enjoyed getting to help clean the school that the children attend here at the village. It is a very small building and is only for grades kindergarten and 1st, all the older children have to commute between here and Matamoras. The cleaning has mostly involved yard work and has been very interesting as us girls attack the lawn with dull machete's and our hands to attack and cut the grass. There have been laughable moments as the natives here watch us white girls try to cut grass with zero machete skills. It has brought a smile on more than one face I am sure.

     After afternoon ministry is done we check-in at five for another team meeting and than have dinner at 6. After this our day ends with an 8 o'clock session and than blessed rest. On Friday nights it looks a little different because it is movie night. On Saturday, they take us into town which will always be either Harlingen, Texas or Matamoras. It always holds a little bit of home when we get to go into Texas. On Sunday, we have a day of rest and many people will spend the day in solitude searching scripture or doing "homework" of which we have a plenty of. In the morning we all have worship together and in the evening we have a session. That is the usual routine of the week of which I probably went into way to much detail! Suffice it to say that it has kept me busy and at times has been really full of sweet times with the Lord when we have a rest. Oh and laundry....that has been interesting and I am quite sure I am not doing it right. I have it down to a science and have simplified it so that what I once thought a complicated art is very, very fast and easy (in Uganda they will probably be horrified). I can do it in two buckets with minimal scrubbing and if one gets up early enough you can avoid the crowd and have it all washed by 8 and dried by 12. So you all should applaud because that is a real accomplishment here (Yea Brittany!!!!). Well before I get a massive ego I will go with the simple statement that I can live with cockroaches and spiders and bugs of various types and sizes without screaming. I even surprised myself by relentlessly chasing a cockroach just for the joy of killing it (I have become quite bloodthirsty). That's is now officially all except that I want everyone to share in my joy that I now own a $5 fan from Walmart that has been my salvation and a sweet kiss from heaven every day. He has even made me love it more since He fixed for me. That's all and I will try to keep everyone updated!

P.S. I posted a few photos of where I am staying. I am sorry that there is none of my ministry family or of the orphanage, we are not allowed to take photos at this time until we have come to get to know each other better.