It's Raining, it's raining...

It's raining, it's raining, it's raining once again,

The Spirit of the Lord is moving like a mighty rushing wind,

The Holy Ghost in fire is falling on all men,

Giving them the power to bring the Harvest in.

-The Stutzman Sisters

Recently, we had 2 storms come through. One was a surprise and we had flash flooding. I believe the worst storm we measured 4.5 inches in less than 24 hours, which may not seem like a lot, but it was huge to this dry land.

This is the convenience store across from CVE, down the highway.

Andy and a few others helped rescue a baby calf from a field that became a river

This field is only about 25 meters away from our house. Thankfully, it did not get any closer. Two other houses on campus did get water inside. One of them was occupied, while the other one doesn't have any one living on the ground floor. The man on the other side of the fence has this small herd of dairy cows. This calf they are rescuing was only 3 days old. As this was happening, I was thinking of how God leaves the 99 and seeks out the 1. These cows are precious to Bro. Hector and the love and devotion he gives them are admirable. Andy had flip flops on this night and one was stuck down in the mud when this rescue was happening. They were old and falling apart anyway but Clayton went out the next day and found the flip flop. When he showed me the condition of it, they got thrown away, anyway :(

Malaya has always been the one to bond with animals. Here she is comforting "Lucky". Poor thing was shivering and wet from it's adventure a few minutes before.

Unfortunately, due to all the flooding, our well became contaminated and so we had to start buying water in town to drink and taking extra precautions at home with cooking and washing dishes etc. As of yesterday, a sanitation effort was done and now we wait until we can get test results back from the lab.

Normally, this is a grassy area behind the school. The rush of the water ended up knocking over the white fence.

One of the houses that had flooding

The day after the flooding, our family traveled to Willcox, AZ to Apple Annie's, a fall experience. The older kids did a corn maze while Andy, Erin and Aria went on a hayrack ride to find a pumpkin. After trying some apple cider donuts and apple pie, we headed over to Kevin and Annie Wulf's, and drove with them to Douglas, AZ. The Cochise County Fair was going on and a rodeo was happening!

On the way to the Rodeo

Picking out her pumpkin

University kids competed in a rodeo

Mexican Independence Day is celebrated on the 16th of September, and each year the school asks kids to bring in specified food items related to tamales, tacos, caldos, elotes, etc. Clayton was asked to bring in Elotes and Aria (or rather her parents) bought bistec ranchero for her to bring in.

Clayton's 7th grade class dresses up for Independence Day

Getting to dress up Mexicana

Employees of Carnísimo Burgers decorated one of the dining rooms for Independence Day

Lynn and Leonda Steiglitz came down for a minister rotation

Mary Lehman and her assistant teach an adult riding class every other Saturday.

Playing together has become a great way to connect in the evenings.

In the past, we had several people to pull from for playing piano or guitar for church services. Now we are down to Kendra playing piano and Andy leading a cappella. Recently, Sierra was asked to help play and will be playing the piano tonight for our monthly singing. She's also stepped into teaching Sunday School a few times a month for the 2-6 year olds. She really enjoys that age and wants to be a bilingual teacher in the Early Childhood years, so this feels like a great way to practice both Spanish and managing a classroom.

Sometimes I get overwhelmed at the sheer volume of stuff and things this house collects. It's a rather large house (7 bedrooms, 6 baths) so there is so much space to spread out. This morning, I went and visited a little old lady in her house for the first time. It was someone Joan Schick knew and I felt the nudge to go check on her and invite her to church Sunday.

It's hard to describe the conditions of the house and wonder how she isn't deathly sick. I saw at least 3 others there, one an 8-year-old girl. There's so many differences between the house she calls hers and the one we rent. Maybe the reason God sent me there was for me to understand how this picture below really isn't that wrong. We have running water, food, clean spaces (that maybe didn't feel clean "enough" before) and healthy children. So much to be thankful for. God, please don't allow me to take these for granted.

A devotion I read recently resonated with what I struggle with

It's very easy to be critical of myself and how I do things

Deb Leman and Aria make sour cream cookies together

Last weekend, we experienced Holy Communion together as a church. Mike and Deb Leman came down for the weekend. Andy had the main part of the service with Todd S. and Julian reading the scriptures before breaking the bread and drinking the wine. It's a special time as a church family to sit together at a long table and think of Jesus' sacrifice for all of us. There's a time of sharing at the end where those who want to share can share what the Lord is doing in their lives since the previous Communion. It was encouraging to hear of forgiveness, letting the Lord's will be done and trusted, growing in faith and hearing an example of those who have walked with the Lord longer than we have. One shared of watching his dad age and ready to move on to Heaven and how something like the note from someone he cared a lot for, is one of his prized possessions. Not too much else holds the same "glitter" for him.

As I think of that, the ability to let all things go and to just be ready to go seems like it would feel so freeing. So free to just be "transplanted" into the heavenly realms above and have no more sickness, no more sadness, no more sorrow, no more crying. What a day to look forward to, if we are ready.

Hilos (after-school program) has started and this semester Andy will be teaching board games with two other teachers. He is enjoying getting to know kids from school and it gives him a chance to do something "of less stress and more joy" 2x a week.

We are thankful that a new director has been named for Casa Vida y Esperanza. A local Christian woman, Erika, will be stepping into this position and we thank the Lord for His providence. Praying for all this change will touch and praying we can soak up our time with Todd and Zoe Stoller, before their time to move next Summer.

Andy and I met with the Carnísimo Burgers Restaurant Manager Alba today to plan out the end-of-year events. It's hard to believe that the Christmas party will be here before we know it. Please pray for the employees, for increased team cohesion, for open, surrendered hearts. Pray that Andy can be a leader that serves and relys on the Lord for his strength. Pray for me to lift up his arms when the workload becomes heavy and overwhelming and (before that too). Pray for our kids in their school years, their fears, their doubts, that they can and will have joy in serving alongside us. Pray for them to soak up what the Lord is bringing into their lives and pray that we as parents (who did not grow up in a different country) will have compassion on them and walk with them through the difficult parts of being a third culture kid.

God bless you all and thank you for reading and praying. May you all be blest in your own mission fields.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13

A sneak peek to our family pictures taken at the Agua Viva Ranch and a donation link to the Fatted Calf mission