Only 4 showers left…

We were looking at the calender today and realized a couple of things:

1. It’s April 11, and we haven’t done any kind of an update for almost 2 weeks.  Oops.

2. We leave Tlaxiaco in a month.  4 weeks (meaning 4 showers for me at the rate I work at)

So what have we been doing the past couple of weeks?  And what are we doing for the next month?  Well, let’s see…

Last week we finished off Mission Training School and graduated.  I got a pretty piece of paper that says I am now certified to be a professional missionary and church planter.  At least, that’s what I think it said.  I’m not one to read papers too often.  I don’t even know where my bible college “paper” is.  Later that graduation night a bunch of our friends drove off for the US.  It’s a lot quieter around here now.  A bunch of the singles took off over the next couple of days and now what we are left with is 3 families and 1 single guy.  And 2 dogs.  And the puppies down the road.  A bunch of chickens and assorted birds.  Lizards.  And the houseflies which are starting to appear again.  And the horse which Katria is positive is actually a donkey.

(how can you tell she has spent the last year in Mexico and not Alberta?  The 4 legged creature with a big head people ride on top of is always a donkey, not a horse.  We’re gonna have to take her Stampeding this year so she gets it straight)

So it’s very quiet around here, did I mention that?  But that has given me a lot of time to work on my after school project which is a new website for Global Frontier Missions.  Click here to see the old one.  Click here to see the new one (which is a work in progress).  Which one do you like better?  Awwww, you’re just saying that to make me blush,

No, no. Don’t stop yet.

I`m also trying to improve my Spanish.  Which isn`t the “awfully terrible” that it was when we came down.  Now it`s more of a “barely indistinguishable from the babbling of a three year old”.  And yes, I am proud of myself.  And my mom says I`m smart.  So there.

Chelsey and Jared are on Easter Vacation from their school.  They`ll go back in another week, be in school for two weeks and then be done as we get packed and ready to move home.  They`re pretty excited to finally be done.  They say they don`t learn anything, but when I hear Jared chatting with his friend down the road I know he`s not telling the truth.  And when they translate for me when I get stuck in a conversation.  They`re gonna be very helpful when we drive home together!

Michelle is enjoying that I am not in school most of the day now.  Although, she does have to deal with my daily “commutes” to “work”.  Sometimes (if I`m not working on my laptop on our kitchen table) it takes me almost 2 minutes to get to the office!  How will I ever go back to bussing to downtown Calgary?

The next month for us is pretty much gonna look like this though;

1. Packing

2. Getting rid of stuff that we can’t fit in the van

3. Potty training (Katria, if you were wondering who)

4. Packing

5. Eating as much Mexican food as we can before we will no longer be able to have the real stuff

Oh, and next week I get to fulfill a lifelong (maybe month long) dream of attending a Mexican pro wrestling event.  That’s gonna rock.  (Mystico is going to be there!  He’s like Hulk Hogan AND the Rock put together.)  At the end of April, Jared and I are heading to Pachuca with his soccer team to watch a pro soccer match. Yup, pro wrestling AND pro soccer in Mexico this month.  That’s living the life in Mexico!

I think we’ve said it before, but Michelle and Katria are flying into Calgary on May 14.  Me, Chelsey and Jared are leaving Tlaxiaco on the 13th and should be home around the 20th.

As far as prayer requests go, please pray that we will be able to pack smartly.  And that we would get done the tasks that we need to.  Also for finances.  We should have enough for the trip home (THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HAVE GIVEN!!!) and to live this last month.  But we are wondering how we will get back into life in Canada once we’re no longer missionaries and have to pay mortgage and bills while waiting for my first pay cheque from work.  God will provide, we would just love if people would join us in asking Him to do what He already wants to do (I’ve mentioned it before, prayer confuses me at times).

Thanks everyone!  Please don’t hesitate to send us an email to say hi! or ask any questions you may have.  We hope that we can get in touch with all of our supporters once we get home as well.

Ryan, Michelle, Chelsey, Jared and Katria