Last week it seemed like Valentines Day got left somewhere in the dust of New Mexico where we were on a Mission Helps trip to renovate a new school building for Calvary Indian Mission.
That is, if Valentines Day means eating out and getting fancy gifts and cards for each other and swooning around in the moonlight.
It just didn't happen.
But love did.
Love happened.
At Smiths grocery store somewhere near Gallup, I had never seen this many flowers and balloons in one spot before.
Jonathan thought maybe it was because this was one of the only grocery stores for many miles around.
a purple hyacinth not quite in bloom.
Purple, in memory of his mother.
We had hoped to eat out on our way to New Mexico, maybe a Mexican meal in Santa Fe, just for special for Valentines Day weekend and because it would give me a little break about fixing a meal to take along, but the time crept away from us and we were two or three hours behind by the time we arrived in Santa Fe.
Instead, I went back to our travel trailer and pulled out a bag of sandwich fixings that Carrie had wisely put together for us four--Carrie, Hannah, Jonathan and me.
And we ate sandwiches I made in my lap as we traveled on to Albuquerque.
And we decided to just make the best of it--because that is what love does.
This is where we stayed overnight at the Rock of Ages Bible Holiness Church.
This is where we worshiped Sunday morning, with David and Lisa Howard Wiseman.
I knew Lisa way back when I was about ten years old when we and Lisa and her sisters played together at the Mitchell Campmeeting in South Dakota.
Now we meet together again, Lisa's husband, a mechanic/preacher, with Lisa playing so pleasantly at the piano, her grown son leading singing for Sunday School.
These crocuses were peeking through by the empty parsonage where we ate a fast lunch I'd brought along in the crockpot.
They weren't roses but they were flowers, and they were pretty!
We drove on from there to attend the evening service at Calvary Indian Mission where Seth and Melody Yates minister. Miriam Yates was also there.
And then Monday morning, Valentines Day, came. While I took Seth's place helping teach the preschool children and listen to other students try to read, Carrie spent the morning helping Melody make umpteen pizzas for a Valentines Day pizza lunch around a very extended Amish-style table.
Melody had a pretty tablecloth and lots of little treats.
I spent the morning helping school children around the table. Most of them have not arrived yet in the above picture.
In the afternoon, I scrubbed a whole sink full of potatoes that the Yates had gotten when they were up at Northwest Indian Bible School in Montana last fall. One potato was the shape of a heart!
A heart shaped potato for Valentines Day!
Carrie diced up those potatoes and we prepared lots of them and a huge bag of carrots for soup for about 29 people the next day--a Mission Helps crew of 16, 11 children, and Seth and Melody.
Hannah enjoyed playing matching games with the preschoolers, especially a dear 5-year-old named Noel.
Noel and her little cousin were in an orphanage for the first few years of their lives till their grandma finally got custody of them. They came out malnourished, with swollen bellies and skinny arms and legs. Their grandma keeps seven grandchildren and brings them to school each day from ten miles away.
But when we reached out to hug these children, they just hugged us back and
jumped right into our hearts!
On Valentines Day, Jonathan and I were so busy we hardly saw each other, but we loved on the children and worked on a new school building for them.
And love happened.
Jonathan was gone all evening, shopping for materials and taking Carrie and Hannah back to Grant, NM, to meet Sam and Danny who were trading places. Carrie and Hannah, after a day of skiing at Angel Fire, NM, went home to take care of chores since Rose is gone from dawn till past dark to the farrier school here in Colorado.
But Sam and Danny joined our crew for the rest of the time we were there.
And all week long love happened.
Jonathan and I didn't have a Valentines Day Night Out,
but there was love all week at a little mission way back in the boonies and dust of New Mexico.
And there will be more in another post later.
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