John Mark & Moorea

 By a rubber tree in the river market, Vallarta

We has a great day yesterday. Since we have been here, we have been befriended by a middle aged Canadian couple who live here full time. They have been very kind to us. They were the ones who took us scuba diving, and they have had us over to their house a few times. They have also been the source of great advice about which taco stands to visit and how to get around the area. They also know where the good ice cream is :) They have a real estate business here and therefore a internet phone that has unlimited international calls to the US and Canada.

They have invited us to use their phone any time to call our families who we hadn't spoken to (besides for a few emails) in a month. We went over yesterday afternoon and talked to my whole family and John's mom. I called my sister in Texas, and John called his brother. It was really good to talk to them all and catch up with their lives. We definitely miss them all.

The Forgets also lent us several things for our apartment that we have been living without (like spoons and other near-essentials)They even took us out for Mexican food and good conversation. John and I are both very grateful for their friendship and their generosity.

working in the nursery for Spanish Service

Next week, we are planning a kids camp. Please pray that more kids will sign up. We only have 21 kids between the ages of 3-10 signed up.(Yes. 3 year old kids here go to overnight camps. Some things are very different here.) I am co leading one of the teams and organizing a sack race, which will be interesting considering the limitations of my Spanish. Lots of pointing and hand signals will ensue. Please also pray that those who have volunteered to help with the camp will have enough money to pay the leadership fee, which basically covers food costs. It is only $100 pesos, which is about $8.00 USD, but for most of the volunteers, that is a lot of money. They are selling smoothies to raise money. Please pray that that brings in enough to cover all of the leaders for the camp.

 Taking people home after church. La Fuente bought this truck from the Plumbing Doctor in May.

My Colombian friends suggested that some of them sing on the bus as a fund raiser. I asked if singing on the bus was common. I have seen it once since I've been here. He said that singing is one of the fastest ways to raise money around here. "You can make a lot of money singing on the bus. Some people even make $300 pesos a day" He said. His tone suggested that that was a LOT of money. I was taken aback. $300 pesos is about $25 USD. That's it. Living costs here are about the same as northern CA. They are very expensive. 2 or 3x as expensive as any other place in Mexico.  How do people survive on less than $30 dollars a day? I don't know that answer to that question.

Supports on the second story before they poured the roof last week. They had support like this on the 1st and 2nd floors to keep the building up while the roof was curing. John Mark went to church at 6:30 this morning to take them down for church service today.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. John and I are doing well.
Blessings and Peace,
Moorea