A little treehouse picnic!

A few of my students chose to have lunch with me as a reward and so we decided to make use of the new treehouse! It was fun!

SMCA Spirit Week!

We had our first ever Spirit Week and the kids loved it! It was a good break from their uniforms every day.
Monday was hat day!

Tuesday was jeans day!

Wednesday was crazy hair day!

Thursday was backwards day!

Friday was Pajama Day!

Since Christmas I have decided to add yet another role to my week. A lot of the children at the childrens' homes are struggling in their schoolwork and reading and since that is my specialty, I decided to help. I went and tested letter sounds, words, and reading and then am creating games the kids can play to improve in those areas. We have already seen some improvements and they no longer need to be bribed with candy to play the games!

Valentine's day in Monterrey

Mexico really makes a big deal about Valentine's Day but it's called the Day of Love and Friendship. Everyone gives each other candy and gifts. It's a lot of fun!
I got flowers from friends, Valentines from my kids at school, and candy from the teen girls!!

My students making their Valentine boxes:

Our Valentine party!

Rio 3

Yesterday I got the opportunity to go to the Rio3, a poor community, to help translate for a medical team! It was a wonderful day getting face to face with the people and getting to show them a little bit of Jesus. I was checking people in and filling out a form with name, age, symptoms, etc... We saw about 60 patients!
The check-in team:

The waiting line:

In my 4 winters here, I have never seen snow on the mountain until the other day! It was a beautiful sight! My students were excited and when we spotted a few flurries, we had to stop and look out the window. One of my students said "Will we get to make snowballs?" Poor girl has never seen snow before. I seized the opportunity and we read some books about snow and wrote a story about snow.

We've had a cold spell and everyone's been cooped up in our cold houses. We decided to bring the little girls from Casa Hogar Douglas, the childrens' home, over to make mini-pizzas and watch a movie. It was fun and they enjoyed it!

Bringing Christmas to the Rio!

Last Saturday I got the privilege of helping share the joy of Christmas with people who have close to nothing. About 100 adults and 100 children came out to worship and hear a message. After that we had a skit, a meal, gifts, a pinata, and crafts. The gifts are thanks to donations from friends in the states.


My debut as Mary...

SMCA Outreach

Every year we try to do an outreach where our school children do something for the community. The childrens' homes and Rios we work at are not in our own neighborhood. Yet even in our neighborhood we have very poor and very rich. This year we went out and handed out candy canes with the Christian story of the candy cane on it. It's a great time for us to get to know our neighbors and help them to see Americans in a good light, and to share the love of Jesus!!

New food I tried last night

It's called 'poncho cachuro' and it is a burrito made of baked cheese on the outside, and inside is meat...you cut it and put it on tortillas with, of course, lime and salsa...Que Rico!! It was great!

Parties, parties, parties!

Staff women's party

Single girls' Christmas celebration

Staff kids' party!

Joven Christmas party

I love being able to be a part of the teen ministry here on campus. I have watched these kids grow for 4 years now and I have built relationships with a lot of them. We blessed them with a party, just for them, this Christmas. I loved watching them laugh and socialize with each other...

There were eating games like:
a relay to eat the Saltines and whistle afterwards..


'Chubby Bunny'

'Spoons'

'Jenga' with a twist..




and of course, food!

Thanks to all of you who support our ministry! Thanks to you, we could get them all Christmas presents!!!