Darwin came up on Wednesday afternoon and he and Ralph spent the evening out at Tayloltita and Campo Ceuta. They held a Bible study with a family in Tayloltita and only the men came. Please pray that the women would also come to learn more about God’s Word. Perhaps when Lidia and I get out there we can encourage the women to participate more. Please ask God to show us how to involve the women in the studies.
After the Bible study and a meal with the family they traveled over to visit with brother Ismael to encourage him. He pastors the church at Ceuta. They had a very lively conversation and visit with him, he’s such a nice guy with such a large task before him. Please keep him in prayer.
We’ve also been blessed this week to make several new acquaintances in town, particularly the family that runs the Loncheria Blanca, a small lunch counter in the walk-through market place downtown. Great food and great company, a perfect combination! They are Consuelo and Yadira, Isadoro and Fernanda (age 8) and son Kevin. They are so friendly and helpful and so encouraging in our Spanish acquisition. They even got their customers involved in our language learning!! Later in the week Isadoro happened to be in our neighborhood for his job and he made a quick stop to visit for a minute!
In our travels this week we’ve also met Janet at the nursery and Rafaella, a neighborhood woman, and finally we met the husband and son of Candy, our neighbor! He works odd hours and we’ve seen him come and go sometimes, but finally formally met him. He and their son are both named Luis Francisco. And we also met Veronica at the hat shop where Ralph finally got a hat to shield him from the sun.
As we walk different routes back and forth downtown we’ve discovered a foot long iguana that suns himself on a big pile of rocks…he’s pretty much ignored us and everything else and just sits perfectly still as we and everything else go by. But one afternoon this week as we were walking by he turned completely around to watch us and started head bobbing. We weren’t any closer to him than we’d ever been, and wondered what was up with him all of a sudden, but as we were trying to figure that out a dump truck came by startling him into cover. Guess we’ll have to check him out more this week.
Speaking of critters, we also had a visit from one of the neighbors’ chickens a while back. While we were eating lunch in the kitchen she just walked herself right through the patio and living room and into our bedroom. We kept hearing these weird noises and discovered her exploring. She was stubborn and didn’t want to leave so we ended up having to sweep her out with the broom. I think she was highly offended because she hasn’t been back.
Some of you have wanted the latest update on our cohabiting spider. We debated for days about what, if anything, to do about it. We wondered if whatever it was feeding on might be worse than the spider itself. We thought about whether it was making a nest, or even if it was actually a baby and a bigger mom might be nearby. We finally decided that it had to go and got some spray for it, but then of course we didn’t see it for a while. But when Ralph got home late from the camps on Wednesday, there it was, so he gave it a dose of spray before he came to bed. He didn’t mention that to me, so imagine my start when I got up to use the bathroom a little later and caught a glimpse of this big spider running into the shower! He’d never left the toilet tank in my presence before, and man, was he moving quickly! Needless to say, Ralph got up and finished him off.
Friday was “Dia de la Bandera” or flag day and we had a wonderful parade downtown! Student groups from nearly every school in the district, kinder to university, each had a little group marching in the parade. Some had their fanciest uniforms others just their school uniforms, many had drum and bugle corps, even the tiniest kids! It’s was a great display of patriotism and youthful enthusiasm and we had a great time taking it all in.
We also decided to drive up to El Salto, the famous bass fishing lake…and it’s beautiful and full of people who would like to take you out fishing. The lake itself is way down because of the time of year…after the summer rainy season it will be back up to it’s normal levels. The level doesn’t seem to affect the number of people fishing at all. They say the bass there have reached 30 lbs.…no I’m not kidding, but I think they are. That's nearly as much as our granddaughter weighs!!
We went into Mazatlan to do some shopping and got wild and crazy on the way back and decided to take the “Libre” rather than the “Cuota”, free vs. toll road. There is a toll road that runs all the way from Nogales to Mazatlan, and that’s what we took as we drove down here. We’ve taken the toll road each time we’ve gone to Mazatlan as well, and people advised us against taking the Libre, but our neighbors do it, so we took the plunge. It’s a beautiful drive, but takes quite a bit longer as it is strictly two lane blacktop with lots of trucks and busses to slow you down. And it’s only 80K rather than 110K, so that slows you down a bit too. But it’s a nice, curvy, hilly road that’s a fun ride. And the Cuota is $95 pesos each way to Mazatlan, or about $20 total for the toll. We’ll probably continue to do a mix of the two roads.
Please continue to pray for our language acquisition and for phone and internet service and for Tom and Lidia and the girls as they prepare to move to La Cruz next week. Thanks so much for your prayers and your support.
In Christ’s Love,
Ralph & Chris
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