I enjoy a good parable, and I came across this site with a bunch of parables. I will post my favorite two, but check out the parable site for more.

A group of people are standing at a river bank and suddenly hear the cries of a baby. Shocked, they see an infant floating–drowning–in the water. One person immediately dives in to rescue the child. But as this is going on, yet another baby comes floating down the river, and then another! People continue to jump in to save the babies and then see that one person has started to walk away from the group still on shore. Accusingly they shout, “where are you going?” His response: “I’m going upstream to stop whoever’s throwing babies into the river

3 frogs are sitting on a log in a lake. after some time 1 frog makes the bold decision to jump in. how many frogs are left on the log.

yes, its a trick question

the answer is 3.

why? because the frog only made the decision yet he failed to take action.

I have been wanting to post this for quite some time, but have been waiting for a few final details to get cleared up, and for approval. so here is my “official” letter. give it a read, and then at the end i will add a few details for those of you who haven’t been in this loop very long.
AND AS ALWAYS THERE ARE MORE NEW PHOTOS AND VIDEOS VIA THE LINK JUST OVER TO THE RIGHT —–>

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It’s hard to believe it’s already been one year! On November 2nd I will celebrate the one year anniversary of my arrival to Monterrey. And I couldn’t have done it without you. I really can’t describe how greatly God has used each of you to further His kingdom here on Earth. I have truly had an amazing experience here in Monterrey, and God has done many amazing things – many of which I have shared with you through my monthly updates; but there are hundreds of stories that I will share with you when I arrive back in the States on December 15th. As I have previously mentioned, I am planning to stay an additional six weeks here in Monterrey. I have taken on many projects, small groups, etc; and it is best that finish out the school semester to bring better closure to it all. Two of my main focuses here are the high school youth group and the college group. In both of these groups I have leaders in training to accept the responsibility after I am gone. I am very confident in them. However, it would be very awkward to leave in the middle of the school year for these two groups. After much prayer, consultations, looking at dates/schedules, number crunching, etc, etc; I feel it is best if I stay until December 15th. For me, that was the easy part – I am confident this is what God wants me to do. But it doesn’t end there. It gets a little more complicated. As I only had a one year contract with my sending agency (GCM) I will be remaining here on my own. After November 2nd I will no longer be on staff with GCM. This may raise a few questions in your mind. And rightly so. Questions like why do you need to stay six more weeks? How will you get paid? Will you still be at the same church? Etc, etc… All very good questions, and I will attempt to briefly explain that now, but as always – feel free to email me any thoughts, comments, concerns, advice and I will happily respond.
Nothing on the Mexican side of the border is changing. Not my attitude, job description, living arraignments, or anything of that nature. Everything in regards to my ministry will remain the same. The only difference is for the final six weeks I am trusting in God to provide financial support from those of you who feel lead to continue supporting me. There will be one major difference on the American side of the border. If you are considering continuing to support me I will no longer be receiving support via GCM. So all you need to do is change who you write the checks to, and where you send them. All support for the final six weeks will have to be given to me directly. My mom is going to be handling the depositing process. It’s actually going to be very easy. I have easy atm access to my checking account back in Palos Heights (it only costs me 75cents per withdrawal, regardless of the amount). So my mom is willing to make a weekly run to the bank and deposit any checks/cash donation she receives for me. [THANKS MOM!] The only down side I can’t find an answer to is the fact that this is not tax deductible. But again, this is only a six week deal. I plan on sticking to the same budget I have been living on here for over a year, which means I will only need around $1,500 (including money for airfare to return home) to eat, sleep, and live here in Monterrey for an additional six weeks.
I know this sounds really complicated, but it is not a big deal. We serve an amazing God and I’m confident He has planned this all out in advance. I can’t thank you enough, and everyone here in Monterrey thanks you too!
I will continue to be in touch with you throughout the next several weeks, and look forward to seeing you all after I return to the Chicago area soon. Please let me know if this is at all unclear, or if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions.

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ok, to clear a few things up: GCM is my sending agency, I had a one year deal with them - that year ends on November 2. I want to stay with this church to finish the school semester with my high school and college groups that i am involved in. GCM and I could not come to an agreement on how much money was necessary for this six week extension. Not a big deal, we still love each other They are a great organization with a great vision. a vision that I love and hope God continues to bless them imensly. all this really means is that after Nov2 I am a “free agent” and they aren’t responsible for anything that happens to me.
anyways God always provides, as I will share in my next post .
email me at: HavingaE (at) yahoo (dot) com if you want more info. or for whatever.

***PRAYER REQUESTS***

~ Thanksgiving for a great time with my parents visit.
~ Continued support for the last 3 months, that I will finish strong and stay focused
~ A smooth transition for the church, orphanage, and my friends in my absence
~ Thanksgiving for God opening new doors to serve in Chicago, and continued prayers that the details would all fall into place with Gente Unida Ministries (Westbrook), and Moody Bible Institute.
~ Peace concerning financial issues for my future
~ Spiritual maturation and/or Salvation for (these are all people I am trying to strengthen, encourage, disciple, teach, build up, and love on): Claudia, Adie, Cristy, Betty, Alondra, Lalo, Ramon, Eli, Eduardo, Lizbeth, Andres, Oscar, Loyda, Erick, Hector, Alex, Arnoldo, Sandra, Roberto, Luchenta, Nancy, Claudia, Nelly, Mary, Monica, Melissa, …
~ Praise for a great first year of this church here in Monterrey. And praise for a great 2 years Gente Unida Ministries (my home church). And may God bless them both with many more years in His grace.

~~ thanksgiving for a great trip to Saltillo (a city about an hour from here) to visit with Primo, and his family. Primo and his whole family were super nice, and welcomed me in to their homes and to celebrate the wedding of Primos sister. [photos to follow soon..}
— Primo is a friend of mine from Gente Unida Ministries in Bolingbrook, IL.

It Seems to be harder and harder to write these updates. It would be soo much easier if you all just came to visit for a few days. Like my parents did last month. It was a great time, they got to spend about a week here, and I took them all over, and introduced them to hundreds of people. It was a blast! Everyone here in Monterrey loved them, and now understands why I always say I was blessed with a great family. And now my parents understand a little better what I’ve been trying to explain to them about Mexico for ten months. They both had a really great time (just ask my Mom, I’m sure she’ll be more than willing to show you some of the 200 pictures she took! I also have posted some of via the photos link on my blog < ---) I can’t even pick out one of my favorite things we did, but it was like a mini mission trip! I don’t’ even know how many times we were invited over for lunch or dinner, but I think we ate with just about the whole leadership team at some point. It was a typical good showing of some Latin hospitality! One of the coolest things for me was to get to take them to my orphanage. It’s a bigger deal than it sounds. This is an orphanage, run by the government, for mistreated kids. They are super tight on security. In order to volunteer there you must first complete pages and pages of forms, references, and background checks. The whole process takes several months. [however, God just opened the door for me, and I come and go as I please ~ without ever jumping though any of those hoops] So I was nervous about getting permission to bring them in. I have made friends with most of the security guards (it’s easy to be remembered when you are the only American around), and with some of the boss’s in the office. When I mentioned that my parents were coming, she actually brought it up; that I should bring them to see “my kids”. Chalk up another answered prayer. So everyone at the orphanage was excited to meet my parents (some just to see what color eyes they would have) and they all had very nice things to say about me also. Even my kids were really happy too. My parents had brought some stuffed animals, books, soccer balls, bubbles, and school supplies to donate. Again, because of the security issues we are not allowed to take pictures there; but just ask them how cute the kids were, I’m sure they won’t forget those faces for a while!
Well all that sounds like a vacation, it left me exhausted. Why would all that fun be so tiring? Translating. My parents speak no Spanish, and most of my friends here speak no English. Mealtimes were especially hard for me, I was so busy translating I could never put food in my mouth. But it was all worth it, and I would do it again in a second. So my parents flew out on Saturday afternoon and arrived home safely. (after I few minor delays)
Several hours later, a group of about then people flew in from Cedarcreek Church in Ohio (http://www.cedarcreek.tv)for a week long mission trip. After hanging out with the youth group kids that night, I was right back at it the next day, translating and being the tour guide. This group (and I know I say this every time) was awesome! I got along really well with everyone in the group, they were very encouraging, and I learned a lot of great stuff from them.

***I have posted new photos of my parent’s trip (and more!) click HERE to check them out.***