St. John Methodist Church

This is St. John Methodist Church, a small church in Rio Grande City, TX. They raise $2,000 each year by selling onions grown by church members to finance our projects along with money from the NOMAD organization so we can work in poverty homes. The church is so well kept and beautiful - the congregation works so hard. Today it rained so the Wisconsin people taught us, this afternoon, how to play Pegs and Jokers! Fun after so much work!

How to Make Pineapple Empanadas

First, you mix 4 cubes of butter with one 8 oz. package of cream cheese. Then with your hands you add enough flour until the dough is soft but dough-like. Then you let the dough sit a bit. You then roll the dough into small circles. You place each rolled dough circle into the empanada maker and add pineapple jam. Close the empanada maker which then crimps the dough enclosing the dough around the jam. Finally, you cook them at 250 degrees for I don't know how many minutes. While still warm, roll each in LOTS of sugar and cinnamon. They are absolutely delicious and I know this recipe came from the Internet so you can find it there! Are we not just the luckiest of people???

We were so blessed to be with Grandma Anna Olivarez. and her family.. We met Builda, her daughter, and her three children, one of whom is Debbie, the one year old (can you see her one finger!), Beto, her grandson, and Odilia, her daughter-in-law, who came every day to help Grandma Anna cook her lunch. Anna is 76, has lost her husband, and is recovering from breast cancer. Her daughter had the concrete work done in the bathroom and bought the tile from Mexico. This is a bigger project than we normally do but everyone felt she deserved it. She owns the home, is a citizen of the United States, and is older so qualifies within the Aging and Disability Agency in town through which the NOMADS worked.

We loved the family and Anna and I cried when we left. We will keep in touch with this family forever. They are in our hearts always.

No Snow Here in Rio Grande City

Peach trees blooming today in the courtyard of City Hall in Rio Grande City!

Learning a New Craft - Tiling

These are photos of us working in the bathroom, cutting the tile, setting it and grouting it. We are slow but we are getting most of it done. Frustrating that we won't probably finish but we will do as much as we can! The daughter bought the tile in Mexico and they are beautiful!

A New Porch

John and Maetta are our NOMAD leaders this three weeks. They built the family a new porch. They used to just have three little steps up to the front door. Now they have a much larger porch and three really nice steps. John had to buy a square at McCoy's Lumber as they had a book with it on how to design steps!!!! He had never done that before. It looks so nice!

John is a retired mechanical engineer and Maetta worked for Allis-Chambers also. Both of their spouses died and they married ten years ago.

The Family We are Tiling For

This is our family that we are helping. We are putting tile in their bathroom, plus tiling the shower. On the right is Grandmother Anna who is crocheting a beautiful lap robe. She owns the house and we can help here through the agency on Aging and Disabled. On the left is her daughter-in-law and I'm sorry I can't remember her name but I will put it in next time. On the bottom right is "Beto", his abbreviated name, who has graduated from high school and is planning to attend college. Anna can't speak English so he comes over every morning to translate to Anna. He is holding Deborah, the baby, who is Anna's daughter's child. She is held ALL the time by all the relatives...just smiles when her Mom comes home for lunch but it's no big deal as she has so many mothers and fathers! They have served us tamales (venison and pork), beef fajitas, homemade tortillas and gorditas, and Mexican wedding cookies. Oh my, everything is so delicious and smells so good as we are getting ready for lunch. We do come home sometimes. Next week Anna is making pineapple empanadas for us!!!!!

This is a photo of Barb and Dennis Smith, campers at Desert Trails in Tucson. They are Mission Builders and build the structure of one Lutheran Church a year. While camping in Mission, TX, where we met them for lunch, we learned that he goes over every Tuesday and Thursday through the Canyon Lake Campground where they are, to Mexico with other men and helps build one house a day for someone who is working, owns the land and has children. It is 12 feet by 18 feet - one room with a roof, floor, wood paneled walls. They build a table and shelf and the the ladies of the campground give one quilt per child from their collection of quilts they have made.

Working in Armindina's Kitchen

My job is holding the flashlight!!!

Armandina Garcia

As Nomads we arrived at Armandina's home to fix her leaky sink, fix the back door and replace the screen on one door. We saw a very nice brick house near the road, a Hummer in the garage and when we arrived inside, there was beautiful furniture in the living room and she had granite countertops. Oh my goodness!

The rest of the story: Armandina and her husband (who worked for the school district in the maintenance department) went to Lubbock, TX, every summer with their tent. They and all their children picked cotton from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. for three months. Then, like most people in Rio Grande City, when they had enough money they would build another room for the house. The Hummer belonged to her grandson who stays with her each night; the granite countertops were bought by children and grandchildren and the furniture in the living room was purchased by a daughter.

The children don't know how to make repairs! Armandina qualifies for NOMADS because of the agency we work through (Disability and Aging). She gets a small amount each year for house repairs. So Earl put missing clips on the sink on one side; the other side he placed clips and then wired them to a supporting piece of wood. We fixed the screen door and the back door. For that, we were given some Menudo (tripe and hominy) and homemade tortillas.

She sells the egg shells with cut up tissue paper to Hispanic people - they place candies in them for Easter.