As usual, after church on Sunday we stopped for groceries. I thought you would like to see the tree outside the store with its pretty yellow flowers as well as the colorful grocery carts. Why have gray or medium blue when you can have bright green, yellow, and red?
In Mexico (usually older) men stand in parking lots directing cars in and out of spaces. The traffic is crazy, so there is a need, but I believe they do it to earn a few pesos in tips from the drivers.
On the drive home, we pass fields of sugar cane (just in the foreground). From what I have been told, sugar cane is usually harvested in February around here. The fields are set on fire to burn away the leaves which are very sharp. People never walk through a field as the cane is densely grown, and they would get cut up. After the burn, only the sugar cane stalk itself is left which then can be cut. I also understand that the fields need to be plowed up and replanted every three years or so.
When I was in the grocery store, I looked for spaghetti sauce and found it in a box! I placed my "Abuela" (means "Grandma") mug, a special gift from my granddaughter before I left, next to it so you can gauge the size. He's a cute little guy!
Last week I told you about and showed pics from the evening with my neighbor girls. They returned the favor by inviting another gal from the apartment building and me over for pizza. One of the girls made the pizza crust from scratch. It was so good! They topped their pizza off with spicy sauces, but I thought it was delicious as it was. Mexicans even have a spicy ketchup. One pizza had lots of bacon; the other had chicken and sweet peppers. The dessert was a wonderful sweet bread with a light cream cheese and blackberry filling. The gal who made it could open a bakery; everything she bakes is scrumptious! I also learned a new word--itacate. It basically is a "to go box", but the practice is that when you have been invited to someone's home for a meal, the host will make extra food just so you can be blessed by taking it home. I was given two large pieces of pizza.
El Monte has a Cross Cultural Training (CCT) program for adults training to be missionaries. Just like at a university, students enter classes at different times. One of my students has finished all of this training; others have not or may go a different direction. Anyway, on Fridays the last thing we (students and teachers) all do is get together after classes to take care of any "business", reflect on the week, and pray together. This week the CCT students focused on teamwork since when they are in the field in different countries, they not only will work with people from their new culture, but they most likely will work with colleagues that may be from a different country and culture too. Everyone has different ideas, so learning to work with someone who has a completely different perspective is important. We were divided into two teams and competed in several fun activities in which we all had a role.
After the activities, the students reflected, made connections to their future mission, and then we prayed. I was sitting near the open door when in floated a small beautiful black butterfly. It landed on my hand and stayed there just flapping its wings for almost a full minute! Even as I moved my phone to take some pics, it just stayed there! God has blessed me with so many special moments!
- I am grateful for the special moments God continually gives me.
- I continue to be blessed by many loving relationships here.
- The speaker for next week's WEC conference arrived after flying here from India. His addresses will be in English! :)
- Please continue to pray for an English teacher for next semester, other staffing needs, and resources.
- Pray that God would bind Satan from interfering in any way with the conference. It starts tomorrow and goes through the week.
- Pray for all those traveling here and for the conference to be successful.
- Pray for the El Monte staff who will be serving the attendees all week.
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