Water, water every where, Nor any drop to drink.

It took forever for us to get internet access. The internet company told us that it would take 2-4 weeks for them to get a line run to our house. At  4 weeks, we hadn't heard anything from them. At 4 weeks and 1 day (after a few phone calls) the internet company was on our block running cables. At 4 weeks and 2 days, we waited from 8am-5pm (as they had told us to), and no one showed up. A few phone calls later we learned that our project was "complete." Ha! The cables down the street weren't hooked up to anything and no one had been here to install anything. Thankfully a very nice installation tech was nearby and came at 6pm to check things out. After just a few minutes, we had internet using the phone lines that had been on our property the whole time!! But it was just a temporary line that was strung across the yard.

The next week, after several more phone calls, the internet construction crew was here again. This time to bury the line. It was a lovely Thursday afternoon. Vito was in Wisconsin for a wedding he was officiating. The kids were playing. Life was good. Then, BOOM! They hit a water line! Thankfully they had the water back on the next day.

It took about a little over a week to finish burying the cables and fill in the trenches. And as of Friday, we have official internet. Nearly 10 weeks since moving to Cactus and we have all utilities! What a trip its been!

Nope, there's not supposed to be water here!

Eli loved the trenches. He's really enjoying living on a construction site.

Even Olivia is getting into life here--look at those bare feet!

"Let the little children come to me . . ."

Nearly 10 years ago, God added to my (Jenni) call to ministry. I had known since I was ten years old that I was called to full-time ministry. At that point, I felt called specifically to be a missionary. In 2002-2004, I really struggled with my call. I knew that God had called me/us, but what was taking Him so long to get us into ministry? So, in 2004, God whacked me upside the head (He has to do that to me from time to time), and showed me that He could use me right then and there if I was willing. Then He opened doors into children's ministries. I had always enjoyed helping out at VBS and being a camp counselor, but I had no idea the joy that would come from being a Children's Pastor. It was through children's ministries that I received the call to become ordained. It was through children's ministries that I learned about all of the strengths that God had given me. It was through children's ministries that I developed a passion for discipleship of all ages. Over the years, my involvement in children's ministries has varied dependent on where we've been and what the needs were. So it shouldn't surprise anyone that I'm already involved in children's ministries here in not one, but two churches! And it shouldn't surprise anyone that I absolutely love the days when it's my turn to teach!

On Wednesday evenings, I'm teaching the elementary class at Dumas Naz once a month. We've been using a VBS curriculum and I get the memory verse and games night. Right up my alley! I've absolutely loved teaching this class and getting to know the kids at Dumas Naz.

Ms. Rena and Ms. Jackie helping some kids with their memory verse activity.

Isn't she a cutie?

My two little monsters working on their memory verse.

And then there is Cactus Iglesia del Nazareno. I've agreed to teach children's church every Sunday evening that we're in town. So far its only worked out for me to teach twice, but we should be around for me to teach the rest of the year. The first week I taught, I only had Olivia, Eli, and a 3-year old little girl who only spoke Spanish. Thank goodness I had Iris, my teenage helper, there! She was a big help with the 3-year old. I can get along okay in Spanish, but I'm quite rusty and little kids are so hard to understand in another language. Still, it was a great class!

Iris and the kids at children's church

Then there was tonight . . . I was very excited about the lesson I had prepared from the EPIC curriculum (GREAT curriculum from www.nph.com!!). But, oh boy, was it difficult! We had 8 kids ranging from age 2 years through 4th grade. 4 spoke only Spanish, 3 were bilingual, and 1 spoke only English. Iris took the two youngest into the nursery. I asked Vito to come help me so I could teach in English and he could translate for those who spoke Spanish. I had games, crafts, Bible story, questions . . . all prepared and ready for a great class. It didn't go quite as well as planned . . . culture barriers and language barriers abounded. Let's just say that I need to get a bit more creative! Thankfully I had play doh in my bag and that seemed to do the trick!

Play doh reaches all cultures and languages!

Working on creating their favorite thing that God created. We had tigers, vegetables, and trees!

"Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19:14

Culture Shock?

I didn't think we'd have any culture shock with moving to Cactus. Sure, we knew it would be the mission field . . . but I grew up in the Texas Panhandle, so it should be like "coming home." Right?

For the most part, I was right . . . it is like coming home, especially the climate and the wide open, blue sky spaces.

It has been the mission field . . . complete with the multiple stray cats and dogs everywhere, the music blaring at all hours of the day (and night!), the dirt, the bugs, the people walking all over town, the many cultures, the kids playing on mattresses leaned up against house, the horses grazing in the middle of the street, etc. etc.

Kids playing on a mattress propped up against their house.

Horses grazing in the middle of the street.

But oh have we hit the "small town" culture shock!

- There is no hurry to do anything. "We'll have someone call you back" means . . . "Maybe we might have someone call in the next week or so, but likely you'll need to call us back several times before you get any information." 

- Neighbors and non-neighbors alike stop by at any hour of the day. And when they do, it's perfectly acceptable for them to expect you to drop everything and deal "with the moment."

. . . . not to mention there is next-to-nothing in town. Seriously, what is a woman supposed to do when she's craving ice cream at 10pm and doesn't have any in the freezer?!?!?! :-)

Ok, so it's not that bad. Sure there are some adjustments we need to make, but I think we'll be okay. ;-)

Snack Pak 4 Kids

Yesterday evening, we had the privilege of helping to prep food for the Snack Pak 4 Kids program. Dumas Church of the Nazarene volunteers regularly to help with food prep and the pastor, Steve Swanson, delivers the Cactus paks every week.

Dumas Snack Pak 4 Kids was organized in 2013 as a community effort to help provide food for kids on weekends and school holidays who might otherwise go hungry. Dumas Snack Pak 4 Kids is strictly volunteer and relies of donations from the community. The Dumas Snack Pak 4 Kids also services the Cactus Elementary School.

We had a great time helping with this wonderful program. It was great being able to share this time of service with Olivia and Eli. We talked at length about the program both before and after we served. They both have such a tender heart for helping others.

We also got to meet the leader of the Dumas Chamber of Commerce who invited us to stop by any time. You can bet we'll be scheduling a meeting with him soon!

Olivia and Eli were first assigned to trash duty.

Then they got to help unpack boxes of Pop Tarts.

Vito and Pastor Steve Swanson unpacking applesauce.

The Dumas Nazarene volunteers.

Goooooooooal!!!!!!

We finally have internet! There is so much that I need to blog about now that I have reliable connection, and I'm not really sure where to start. I suppose I might as well start with today.

Eli played soccer this past spring in Wisconsin for the first time, and of course he loved it. He is a born natural. Also, Vito was roped into coaching Eli's team, and of course he loved it as well. Like father, like son. We were a little disappointed that they wouldn't be able to play/coach on the same team this fall.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. We got an e-mail from the Dumas Nazarene pastor saying he had seen signs for Dumas YMCA fall soccer sign-ups. Dumas is about 15 miles south of us, it is the closest city with grocery stores, WalMart, etc. So I did a little research and saw on their website that they have an option for "Cactus" when signing up. I jumped all over that and contacted the YMCA program director right away.

Long story, short . . . a few years ago the Moore County (that's the county Dumas and Cactus are both in) YMCA had a decent program going at the Cactus YMCA. In fact, in the Cactus soccer program there were over 200 children playing! However, the director of the Cactus YMCA moved to the Dumas campus and the programs here died. It's too much for parents to take their kids to Dumas twice a week for soccer practices and games. This year there is only one child from Cactus who is playing soccer--Eli. So, I told the program director who we are and Vito signed up to coach a team. We're in conversations now about how we can partner with the Moore County YMCA!!

Anywho, back to today . . . Vito is coaching Eli's team, which is a team of 8 kindergartners from Green Acres elementary and Eli. The team name is . . . are you ready for this? . . . Green Acres Kindergarten. Whooo! What creativity! This morning was their first game and they beat the opposing team 13-3! Eli scored 4 goals and its quite obvious that he's better at offense than defense! It was a beautiful morning for a soccer game and we had a great time.

After the game, one of the team member's grandma came up to us and told us that she was here at CNMC for the ground breaking in May. She is somehow related (by marriage) to the family who sold us this property and remembered meeting us at that time. Connections, connections, connections.

I shouldn't be surprised, but I am continually floored by the way God puts it all together . . . in fact, God even works through soccer!

Vito warming up with the team before the game

Good job, Green Acres! (Eli is number 10)

Just What I Needed

Yesterday, I was lamenting about the fact that we had spent the whole day doing things "around the house." We had phone calls to make, a dresser to put together, lessons to prepare . . . seemingly meaningless tasks. I remember asking Vito, "Is this just part of the job or are we missing something here?" Then, this morning, a missionary friend of ours posted on their blog. It was just what I needed to hear. Thank you, Jill, for your timely post and for the reminder that all of the tasks count, especially when done for the Glory of God!

Here's a link to the Fothergill's blog: Life And All Its Glory

Not Forgotten

Don't worry! I haven't forgotten about blogging! We are still without Internet and ran out of data on our phones is last billing cycle . . . so we've had to limit any "unnecessary" Internet usage. But, we're told we should have Internet by the 18th, which is only a week away! So, until then . . .