Thanksgiving

It looks like it's been quite a while since anyone posted here. Everybody gets busy and some things slip, but we praise God that things continue to move forward.

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving meeting and meal together this past Monday. We are currently missing part of our team, the "O" in OHMS are currently on home assignment in PA. We have also "adopted" some new members for fellowship times as most of their team is currently not in Mexico - Beth Hanna and Paul and Grace Becker. We also had the treat of having Scott Yingling with us for part of the day. He and his family recently moved to Texas from San Juan del Rio.

We enjoyed a devotional and prayer time together, a phenomenal turkey meal, chatting, playing games, worshiping, watching the Eagles pound on the Redskins (GO EAGLES!) and just being together with "family". Here are a couple of pictures:

Team Retreat

This past week, our team spent two days together at El Tephe, a water park that is a couple hours from where we all live. We enjoyed some good fellowship, delicious grilled arrachera, and some insightful sharing times. One of our team's current goals is to build a community of trust. We were grateful to be able to borrow some babysitters from another team :) and had some meeting times where the adults took turns sharing key experiences in our lives using post-it notes, otherwise known as "life-mapping".

In the morning, we had a devotional time where the kids heard a story about Jonah. We all enjoyed listening to the interaction, especially the answer to, "What can we learn from Jonah?"...."Don't fall into the water!"

Bicentennial Park

Our team has enjoyed this park twice now...and it is quickly becoming a favorite! We certainly can't beat the price! Thursdays happens to be their 2 for 1 special day, so we paid about $1 each at our last visit! We didn't take any pictures on our 2nd visit, but the water park section is also a lot of fun with a lazy river and slides, etc.

I HAVE THE SWINE FLU!!!

Not actually. Just figured you read the post with a horrible title like that.

But on the flip side, the "O's", as in Tim & Michelle O'Brien have been sick with a number of symptoms that resemble the dreaded flu and are wondering if perhaps they've been victims of this epidemic. They'll have to tell you that...I don't know. I don't think anyone knows until they get a positive blood test. Anyway...pray from Tim and Michelle to get better. They seem to be improving as they move into about week three of this illness.

Also, the "H's" also struggled for a couple weeks with something fierce and Brock very well may have also had this nasty swine virus. He certainly had the symptoms. I believe they're all well now...even from a strained or pulled arm muscle from being overly active (can you say...Wii baseball?!?...lol...Brock hates me for passing this on but that's OK...I'm sure the 5 of you reading this blog won't tell anyone else!).

Also, among our Mexican co-workers, Blanca Colorado has been very sick with flu-like symptoms. I haven't heard a recent report so not sure how she's doing. Pray for Blanca.

Interesting to note that O'Briens, Howers and Colorados are all in their 30s or early 40s. Seems to be the age range this flu targets...like a tornado and trailer parks. Odd, isn't it?

So...if you're wondering...yeah...it is a real virus and people are getting sick here in Mexico and a few are dying. We're all concerned and watching the developments. We're also not at all worried because we know God is in control, our lives are His and not our own, He takes good care of His children, and we are His children.

Pray for Mexico, pray for our health (to be good or to get better!), and pray that God will use this epidemic for His glory and that we'll be faithful in doing our part of glorifying Him.

Possessing eternal life through Christ is far better than good health and temporary happiness. Praise God for being our ROCK, our HOPE, and our LIFE!

An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away...

...and it appears that several of us haven't been eating our apples!

Couples were to meet this past week but Brock and Heather H. were still battling the flu, their boys having just gotten over illness; Dayton M. was still battling a bad cough and a light fever after a couple days of flu-like symptoms; Bethany O. is oozing goop from both her eyes (pink eye?). One of our wives is having a scheduled surgery next week too, and we didn't want her exposed to all these germs that could become cause for delay for this sensitive procedure...so we ended up canceling our weekly meeting this past Thursday. Bummer...it was our quadruple date week too which is definitely one of our four favorite meetings of the month!

Next week it's the guys turn. We'll see how it works out this Thursday. I vote for a change to Wednesday so we can meet at Wings Army in Querétaro and rid the world of a few dozen chicken wings (buy 20 get 10 free on Wednesdays!). I think Wednesday is surgery day so that idea probably won't work out.

The Gals Met Last Thursday

All four of the 20 OHMS wives met last Thursday for their accountability week. Despite it being MK Homeschool Spiritual Emphasis Camp week at Camp Koinonia, getting the gals together wasn't too hard, since Heather lives at the camp and Beth and Lori were working at the camp for the week. Tim brought Michelle up in the afternoon when the other three were in between camp duties and they enjoyed a time of fellowship, book review and prayer. How neat!

Little Annie played with one of her brothers' dainty toys (yeah right!) to keep her busy! Ya think she'll be a tomboy growing up?!?

Easter Egg Hunt Pictures

Here are more pictures from our Easter Egg Hunt. It was a great time!