Giving Thanks

I celebrated Thanksgiving with Angelita's family and a family friend. Her daughter married an American, so they celebrate each year. I made the pumpkin cake again. Found out, after the fact, where they store the frozen crusts (the dough...you still have to form it in the pan) in my grocery store. The evening was wonderful; we ended up staying until around 12 am. Dinner conversation: a trip to Thailand and Laos on motorcycle; bugs that bite including lice, worms, and ticks; strange food including ingredients we can't find and eating bugs; and other travel adventures. Angelita's grandson and his wife, Juan Marcos and Yoli, entertained us all with their adventures. Sorry, still no photos.

Two weekends ago was full with Isma's cousin's birthday party, a visit to Colmenar youth group Saturday evening (about 45 min from our church), a Sunday lunch in an empty house (wonderfully relaxing), and Sunday evening filling boxes to send to the Sahara for Christmas. I could summarize it as a weekend of reaching out to new people. Meeting Isma's family, meeting and encouraging the youth from a smaller, more isolated city, and sending boxes full of goodies to unknown kids in Sahara in Morocco. It was a weekend full of blessings.

This weekend is an extra long weekend because I have work off both Monday and Tuesday. put that on top of the fact that I don't work Fridays, and I have a mini-vacation. Friday was the normal clean, cook, relax, shop day. I took advantage of Saturday to spend the morning with Isma looking for Christmas presents and the afternoon we picked up Tamy to hang out with the youth pastor's kids. Sunday was the third time I meet with a mini-group of younger girls from youth group to have a Bible study and accountability group. The experience reminds me of when I was in youth group in middle and high school and how much the women who led my discipleship groups affected me. Ann Smits, Rebecca Farrer, and Marti Stittsworth all are examples for me of how to gently lead others to question, search, and reach out to others in love. I am praying that I can lead them well as we all learn together. Today I've taken advantage of the time to cut my hair and translate part of a Bible study to English and try to relax and read a bit. It's been a relaxing day so far.