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It's Been a Busy Year!

Good morning friends! Grab yourself a coffee and find a relaxing place to read today's novel. (Thinking of you, Yvette! ;)

Pictured above: Rich and Sam, Wesley ( age 7), Stacy ( age 6), Liam ( age 5), Wyatt ( age 2).

We left off in the last blog with us living at a missionary base where my parents had lived. In April we moved just down the street into a one-bedroom duplex. Yes, you heard that right, only one bedroom! We set up the four kids in the bedroom, and turned what would have been the living room into a bedroom for us. We have since moved into a bigger home, but more of that to come later...

The one-bedroom duplex was small and cramped but we made it home. Once we moved in, I started teaching a cooking and nutrition class on Monday nights. It was quite comical to see 8-12 teens crowded in my little kitchen! Back then, I alone taught the class, but a couple months ago I reached out to the women in our church to help take turns to teach. I still host the class in my home, but now I get to be a student myself and learn how to cook delicious Mexican meals!

Following the cooking class, Rich teaches a Bible study. Right now he is currently using "The Bible Project" as a way to teach the youth not only how to read the Bible, but to understand the overall story and how Jesus is woven throughout the whole text including the Old Testament. I highly encourage you all to check out The Bible Project. They have a convenient and fun APP that gives you daily readings and summarized videos about each book of the Bible that are very informative and entertaining too! https://thebibleproject.com/

Rich has gotten himself involved in teaching music in a variety of different ways. Monday-Friday after school, Rich teaches the MIT teens private and group lessons. The teens of our church are very involved in leading worship for the church services. It has been such a blessing to see them growing in their skills and leading our congregation in praises. Rich has also joined one of our church's worship teams and plays the electric guitar.

Rich and the MIT youth volunteer their time to teach music at a local primary school in our neighborhood. In our area, in Mexico, there is not enough funding or resources from the government for extracurricular classes such as music. Therefore, this particular primary school is the only one in our area offering a free music class. What's really cool, is that the youth volunteering their time used to attend this same primary school themselves.

This past summer was a whirlwind. We got to participate with our church in some VBS's that our church ran, as well as team up with some groups from the States who came down to do some outreaches and a teen camp.

Below: Our church leading kids in a worship song during an outreach

Below: Singing worship songs at a kids' vbs

In June, our whole family along with a team from our local church joined a mission's group from the States on a missions trip down south to San Ignacio. Rich drove our family and all the youth for in a 15 passenger van that had no working A.C. for 10 hours! That was fun! There were two parts of the trip: 1st half we ministered two a few churches and put on a youth event. the 2nd half of the trip we drove to Mulege to go camping on the beach!

Pictured below: Rich drove a packed van of youth for 10 hours, without any air conditioning.

A packed van, traveling for 10 hours with no A.C!

The whole team slept in the sanctuary of the church. Below in this pic, Rich is napping on an air mattress with our youngest, Wyatt.

Bonfire at the beach in Mulege, Baja California

In August, we got two adorable puppies! Down here, it is a good idea to get at least one dog for protecting your property and family. We chose two puppies, so they'd have companionship. They are brother and sister. We named them Toby and Cahira.

In September, a bigger home opened up for us to renovate and move in to. The house had a LOT of work to do before we moved in, including mold removal! At first all the worked involved in fixing it up was discouraging, but after finally moving in, it has become a major blessing. It has 3 bedrooms and is surrounded by a big yard. The yard is even big enough for us to raise goats in the future. We love having more space, let alone a private bedroom! We've been able to use our home to host different events. On Monday nights I host the cooking class, Wednesday nights we host our church's elders meeting and a marriage class and every 2nd Friday we host our church's youth group. About once a month, we also host the church service in our yard as each family in our church takes turns hosting. Below in the pic, we hosted church at our house.

Below: Hosting couples marriage class in our home.

Friday nights I attend the youth group and teach the girls during lesson time. It's been a great way to keep me accountable to seeking the Lord and reading His Word in order to teach the girls.

As I have mentioned before, our church has a program called Missionaries In Training (MIT). The program is designed to raise up disciples in the Lord, to equip and teach youth everything from leadership skills, biblical discipleship, musical training, and life skills such as gardening, cooking, and more. Until recently, the program only had room for boys ( as it involves guys living together in a home). But, our pastor approached us with the opportunity to pray about Rich and I leading a girls' home and program. We prayed and said yes. Our first girl, is actually my adopted sister, Perla. She took a break from university to be apart of this program. Right now, she is currently living with us and it has been a joy to mentor her and grow as mentors ourselves.

In the beginning of October, we were extremely blessed to have Rich's parents move down to our same town! They live only a couple houses away from us. It's a treat to have the kids' grandparents nearby. We enjoy spending time with them and helping them to get to know our town, the Spanish language, and the culture.

Towards the end of October, Rich along with three other men from our church, traveled to Oaxaca to help mentor a worship team and help serve in a few different worship conferences. They were joined by Jeff Rodriguez, Journey the church head pastor, and his sister, Kim Rodriguez, the missions director. Pictured below: the missions' team to Oaxaca.

We were homeschooling our kids, but after much prayer and discussion, we decided to enroll our kids in public school. One of the biggest benefits is the opportunity for them to learn Spanish quicker. Our foster daughter, Stacy, loves having her brothers attend her same school.

Recently, we enjoyed having our friends, Josh and Stacy Davidson, come down to visit us. It was so great to be able to show them where we live and what we do instead of only talking about it in phone conversations.

This month we've been very occupied with Christmas events for our church and school. Last Saturday, our church participated in our town's Christmas parade. The teens from our church all came over to our host to help decorate a trailer for the musicians to stand and play Christmas carols. Rich played the electric guitar. It was an awesome experience to be apart of.

The kids performed Christmas carols in their school performance this past week too. This evening we hosted a Christmas pizza party for our youth group. We made 10 pizzas and roasted marshmallows on a bonfire outside. This year we are hosting a Christmas party for all my siblings at our house. It should be a fun and loud packed house with my nieces and nephews running around everywhere!

Thanks for taking the time to read and catch up on what God has been doing in our lives this past year.

We want to thank you all for your continued prayers and financial support. Merry Christmas from the Paynes!

More pics :)

Stacy dressed up and performed a dance with her classmates to celebrate Mexico's Revolution.

I had the honor of being my brother's madrina for his graduation from middle school.

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