What's going on in Aguascalientes
There is a lot going on down here in Aguascalientes, Mexico. I want to keep you all informed with the highlights each month. Thank you to all who pray for and support these ministries. We are able to bless so many people and we couldn't do it without you. To God be all the glory. Gracias amigos!
February was a great month! Lots of big and exciting things are happening in my life and the lives of those who I care so much about.
To start off the blog, congratulations to Kyleigh & Luis (aka Junior), on their new baby boy! Silas Mateo Sotelo Palmer was born on February 16th and is such a cutie! Kyleigh and Junior are two of my best friends down in Aguascalientes and I met both of them at the orphanage. We have all volunteered at "Dulce Refugio" (Sweet Refuge) orphanage for many years and I used to call Kyleigh my "most faithful volunteer" when I was in charge of building the school on site. I'm so happy for them and pray that God will bless their beautiful family!
My girls, Ariana & Elvira, have been going to multiple colleges to see the campuses. The high school they attend has had many field trips to show them different options for after their graduation. They both want to continue studying and I am proud of them both. They are doing very well in school and will be finishing in July! I had a parent meeting at their school with all of the details about their graduation and am excited that this milestone in their lives is approaching very soon.
I fixed the floor in the dining hall at the orphanage. This is probably the 5th time I've had to do it. It's really weird how the tiles keep lifting up in different places. I first have to remove the loose tiles, scrape all of the dry tile mix off the floor and then lay down new ones. The kids helped me clean up and one kid, Pancho, even brought his dump truck to help haul away the trash, haha. I was able to save quite a few of the old tiles, but not all of them. Many of them were broken so I bought some new ones. I couldn't get the exact same color but oh well. At least they have a nice smooth floor again. After laying the tiles, I grouted them and cleaned them up. Hopefully they don't pop up again anytime soon.
I fixed a lot of things at the church that we built a while back. The main job was the roof. It would leak during rainy season because there was a section where the laminates didn't overlap enough. There was only about 1 or 2 inches of overlap between the two pieces so rain would creep in. I had to open the roof up and put in more material. That should solve the problem. I also fixed a window and some doors. I wanted everything to be functioning properly before I head back to San Diego.
I installed a window for one of the families in the church that I attend. Someone gave them an old window and they wanted it put in on the side of their house. They asked me to help and I was happy to do it. It was a fun job for me...I got to smash through their brick wall with a sledge hammer! First I had to cut the square where the window was going to be installed and my goodness! It is incredible how much dust is released when you cut bricks. I feel like I ate a whole plate of dust that day. I left their house incredibly dirty but they were happy with the work.
Fellow missionary Chevon's recovery is still going VERY slowly, but we are seeing some improvements. We made a new schedule for her and are now obligating her to do more things for herself. She has a feeding tube installed in her stomach, but we are now trying to get her back in the routine of eating for herself. We have started with pureed food and she is able to swallow small amounts, a small victory but we'll take it! The nurses are getting her up to do more activities so she is not in bed all day. They have puzzles, physical therapy, having her go through things around the house to get rid of stuff she no longer needs and just some good ol' conversation. We did finally get her out of the house for the first time since she returned from the hospital in December. We took her to see her Parkinson's doctor and he switched up her medication a little bit so we are hoping to see better results. Please keep her in your prayers. She really needs God's healing touch!
And lastly, I'm proud to announce that a dream I've had for many years has finally come true. I have written lots of music over the years and got the opportunity to record some songs with my pastor/friend Isaac Gutierrez. Isaac is a very talented musician & producer. He has a recording studio in his house and helped me with some of my ideas. I wrote the songs and played the guitar and he recorded the bass and drums. I'm hoping to record more and have the tracks ready to share soon!