Almost every Tuesday, and especially since the kids started school, we have tostadas. For the most part we have also adopted Comida. The tradition of eating your large meal in the early afternoon. This works out great since 1.) Sam works a lot of evenings and dinner is over and cleaned up well before he needs to leave 2.) The kids come home hungry and waiting until dinner just makes them more hungry. We have actually had left overs eating on this schedule. That's pretty much a miracle with two teen boys. 3.) Dinner is over and cleaned up and you have the rest of the evening free to do other things. We usually have a lighter meal in the evening, something easy to fix and easy to clean up...like cereal, a sandwich, or left overs.
Tostadas are perfect for this schedule, especially on Tuesdays and Thursday. On these days the kids workout hard the last hour of school and I try to go workout also. When we get home everybody helps get toppings out while the beans reheat and dinner is ready! One of our friends told me tostadas are comida floja...or lazy food. Lazy or not, it is defiantly easy. It is really that fast when you have refried beans that you took out of the freezer in morning. Once upon a time, I blogged my bean recipe, but that blog platform isn't even available anymore. I'll try to repost the recipe soon.
Toppings always include beans, cabbage, and salsa. Other options are sour cream, cheese, tomatoes, avocado, and chilis. Everybody makes their own, which is even better.
What is your favorite "comida floja"?
We have a lot going on ministry wise. The church hosted a Christmas movie night right before Christmas. The movie had a clear presentation of the gospel and afterwards, one of the men of the church gave a short gospel centered sermon. Almost everybody brought visitors. I love seeing the church reach out.
That same week a church in Oaxaca city had a mission conference, so some of our church went a few nights. The first night, Sam got a call from the pastor shortly after they had arrived at the church. The conversation went something like this:
Pastor: Brother Sam where are you? (This is very odd, because culturally you always begin with a friendly greeting and then ask how the person is doing.)
Sam: I'm here.
Pastor: At the church?
Sam: Yes.
Pastor: Come up to my office!
When Sam arrives at the pastors office, the pastor informs him the speaker has not arrived and is having car problems. You have to remember, a lot of planning has gone into this meeting, the church is packed and people from other churches have travelled to be here. The pastor asked Sam to preach the first sermon, because "your a missionary". So, Sam stands up and preaches in Spanish with almost no notice. I stayed home with the baby that night, because he was still quite small, but I heard it was great!
We are also trying to minister to the family I spoke about in a previous post. You can read about it by (clicking here). Grandfather became very sick and was in the hospital and as soon as he was out grandmother fell and broke her wrist and is currently in the hospital. There 18 year old granddaughter has been staying with her baby at what looks like a refugee camp just outside the hospital, leaving only grandfather to care for the children. The church is taking meals this week and we have spoken with a Christian Children's Home here in the area that is ready to help. This would allow Lupita to focus on her own baby knowing her brothers and sisters are taken care of and hopefully the church can continue ministering to her and her grandparents. Please pray God's hand continues to guide us, as he already has.
As 2014 draws to a close and 2015 is brand new, it is very exciting to be making plans for a medical clinic to the island region. You can read about our first trip to this area by clicking here. This will be a collaborative effort of the missionaries currently church planting on the island, our church here in Huayapam, and a local group of doctors that often do mountain medical clinics as part of their ministry. You can also read our latest prayer letter by clicking here.
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| Church Planters! |
We had the privilege of being a part of something very similar in March of 2014, that you can read about by clicking here. The trip will help the missionaries and their church on the island reach out to their community. “We are the bait that the fisherman use,” as one of the doctors likes to put it. It will be exciting for the church members here having the opportunity to be a part missions, we are praying they catch a vision and passion for missions and reaching the state of Oaxaca. There is much planning, coordinating, and prayer that needs to go into this trip. We invite you to begin praying with us on this.
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| Translators! |
How about you, what mission trips or Global Adventures ,as my BIL likes to call them, are you planning on going on this year?
