We spent the weekend in quaint, historic Ganbury. They were having a Harvest Moon Festival on the square so after breakfast on Sat. We walked around and looked at the various booths. We couldn't stay too long as we needed to head out and drive over to Glen Rose for an orientation meeting for Mexico. There are 2 men going with us on the Thanksgiving trip from Grace Community Church in Glen Rose. Calixto spent 5 hours going over all the important stuff about the mission trip. The kids and I spent most of that time outside playing...they played and I read.
The owners of the condo left a wonderful book"I Love You, Daddy Boy" for me to read. It was so touching, I spent several hours reading through it. The author is the wife of Bill Frist, the Senate Majority Leader, and she is the sister of our friend who owns the condo. Mrs. Frist just wrote a book about famous or accomplished women and their relationships with their fathers. (I guess she compiled and edited it as the book is comprised of letters from women about their fathers). It was such a reminder of how important that relationship is between our husbands and our little girls!
Calixto leaves this Thurs for Mexico to lead the Pastor's conference. Pastor Candido also asked if the SS workers from the various churches could come and have some sessions of their own. Calixto couldn't say no but, didn't know who would be able to lead those sessions. On Sat. during his meeting he thought about and then asked the Pastor over family ministries (not sure of his title but he is over children's ministry too)if he would come and lead those times...well he spoke to the powers that be and on Sunday he said he would go!! Praise the Lord! Obviously God worked all of that out! Now...we just need one more translator...anyone interested?
We had a great Sunday at Grace Community, it feels like a church home away from home. It was neat, they had an ordination for a couple who are going to Tanzania to be missionaries. This couple are in their mid-fifties...how cool that they are answering God's call on their lives even now! (side note-Catherine's birth mother stayed with them for a little bit and they came to see Cat. the day she was born). The husband gave a short testimony about their salvation and call to missions, what was neat about it is they did not always make godly choices with their lives and consequences for those choices hurt many people but, God redeemed their lives!! And now will use them for His Glory in another culture! Praise God for Redemption!

Finally, I am able to post some pictures from our trip north. This is on the Minn.-Wisconsin border in a state park. There was a film crew taping a commercial or something. A woman and then a man kept yelling/singing "De-troit Basket-ball!" They were trying to get a good echo effect.
The pictures aren't great b/c they were taken with a disposable camera. We had forgotten our camera in the hotel room.
It was amazing to see beautiful trees just growing right out of the hard rocks!
At this point the river makes almost a 90 degree turn (to the R of the picture) due to a fault line underneath
These are the falls in Sioux Falls. My camera would not take a good picture no matter what I did with it...the camera is now in the shop. It was a beautiful balmy evening but the smell from the nearby meat packing company was a bit strong!
Here is my sweet friend Toni, I miss her living right down the street and being a daily part of my life!
No pictures from the conference itself or from the city. Minneapolis has a very neat, trendy downtown...next year we'll take some more pictures.

Things on the house are moving along a little slowly but, that's ok. The seller has the contract and Calixto will meet with her this morning to go over things together. I believe they are expecting us to pay all closing costs, theirs included! Not happy about that. If that is the case then we will require some more things of them like thoroughly cleaning the house. I need to make a list of those things today.
Last night we took part in a prayer walk down some pretty poor streets on the southside. This is the 2nd one for Longview and the attendance was down a bit from the 1st. But, there were still a lot of people, maybe 200. Many people came out of their homes to say hello or wave as we walked by. I felt like I was in some other city or "time" as we walked past these old run down houses. It brought tears to my eyes to see the way some people live just a few blocks from our home. The kids enjoyed themselves as some of our good friends came too. We were even in video on the news. Unfortunately they don't have the video posted on their website, I wanted Christopher to see it.
We leave tomorrow to spend the weekend in Granbury. Calixto will be doing an orientation with some guys going to Mx with us in Nov. so we decided to make a weekend of it and stay at "the condo". The owners are so sweet to let us stay there when we are in town. Then next weekend Calixto will be in Mx for the 1st annual pastor's conference in Tamazunchale. Preparation for this has taken up a lot of his sabbatical time but, at least he has had time to focus on it and make it a priority.
If you are in Longview...enjoy the cool weather...what a difference a day makes!

Happy Birthday to Calixto...a day late...we weren't home much at all yesterday and sometimes I just can't get messages to post on the blog...frustrating!
Another year older and wiser! Happy Birthday...We love you!

yay, it finally worked...What do you think? The first thing to go would be the huge magnolia tree! It is nice that a big tree is there but, Calixto strongly dislikes them from a landscapers point of view. The house was built in the 30's and has one floor although I hear the attic is big enough to make 2 large rooms if we put in a stair case somewhere. It has lots of large windows...at least 5 in each room! That was life in Texas before AC. It has a detached garage with a servants quarters and about 2 acres of land. Hard wood floors throughout with a fireplace...it doesn't work due to chimney problem, but it can be repaired. This could be our new residence...what an exciting and scary thought!

I'm having trouble uploading pictures to my blog so...no pictures for now. We had a wonderful time in Minneapolis. The conference was amazing...such knowledgeable, godly, passionate speakers! I went into the conference thinking it would all be over my head but, thankfully, it was not and I was captivated by each speaker. The audio is downloadable (is that a word?) on the website desiringgod.org. The speakers were very diverse but all had the common bond of God's word and rich theology. The worship through music was incredible with the highlight on Sat evening when the whole orchestra/choir from Bethlehem Baptist joined the worship team. We are already anticipating next year's conference on Endurance. But in the mean time there is the Pastor's conference and the Children Desiring God conference to look forward to at the beginning of next year.
We had a great but short visit with dear friends, James and Toni Swanson, in South Dakota. The area is beautiful, similar to the Lancaster Pa area. Then back to Minn. to read all the books we bought and relax for a few days. We had dinner with a sweet couple who are searching for a place of ministry *(Rob, we suggested RMI, they sound very interested. You may even know each other, he went to TEDS, I'll contact you with his info). We were able to meet with the Children's Pastor from Bethlehem Baptist for 2 hours one afternoon. It was a great meeting where we gained much insight for our children's program. We are thankful to God for filling us with his word and Himself...how nice it feels to be refreshed and full! I just finished reading an inspiring book "Faithful Women and their extraordinary God" by Noel Piper. This is a must read book of 5 ordinary women who fully gave their lives to God and his calling and did incredible things through Him and for Him. All I can say is Wow!
On the house...the day before we left we found out the other potential buyers had backed out and now we are the sole "bidders"! We are moving ahead with contract etc. with caution. We are too funny...it seems every door has been pushed wide open by God and we are still questioning it...but, we just want to be wise!! We'll keep you updated and hopefully, I can post a picture of it soon.