A quiet Sunday

We don't have many quiet days, but thought we might try to take one today.

We spoke via Skype to our former exchange student, Tine, in Norway and caught up with her a bit. She'd just gotten home from her job as a paramedic in Oslo and was about to go have dinner with her sister and her sister's fiance. She was just waiting for her boyfriend to get off work and join her. He's also a paramedic. We've been praying about whether to meet her and her dad in Florida in November when they come for vacation. We haven't seen them in nearly three years and it would be nice to spend some time with them again. We'll see what God has in store for that possible reunion.

Then we had church here in La Cruz, and Pastor Jose was in fine form. We sang some of the older hymns including At the Cross and A Mighty Fortress as well as some newer choruses. The service was over before we knew it and we had a nice time of fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We've begun to gather twice a week for English/Spanish lessons with one another and are enjoying that time together as well. We are certainly feeling the bond with our new church family. Praise the Lord. Thank you for your continuing prayers for Pastor and his family.

Turns out the church we visited while in Minneapolis for Briefing Course and our Directorate interview has their complete Sunday services online!! So we can watch and listen from our home here. That's a great bonus for us too. We really enjoyed that church and their staff and have friends who attend there too! Maybe we'll see them someday on the webcast!

We are also patiently waiting to receive a package of Pastor Bill's sermons from our home church too...miss his preaching!! Miss our church family there too...

Much to Ralph's dismay I have acquired a taste for Banda music, which he doesn't care for. This week I discovered there is a 24 hour a day Banda station on our satellite, Bandamax!

Here's a brief description of Banda: Banda ("band") refers to the form of music played by large brass ensembles that first appeared in the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa several decades ago. A typical banda ensemble features trumpets, trombones, tubas and percussion instruments, and may include keyboards. String instruments are used sparingly, if at all. Banda sounds somewhat similar to American Big Band music, but with a distinctive Hispanic twist.

It also ties in with the cowboy culture I've admired since I became a fan of the Professional Bull Riders years ago, as most if not all of the bands I've seen associate themselves with cowboys. Want to listen to a snippet? http://sg1.allmusic.com/cg/smp.dll?r=20.asx&link=x1xv19skeqjzi63mfquz9im

Thanks for your prayers for our continuing language and culture learning here. Our Spanish continues to improve, and I was quite thrilled to walk into city hall this past week, ask for a map, get directed to an office, actually find the office in the building, talk with the staff there and come away with a map of La Cruz! Could not have done that two weeks ago! We are also continuing to meet new people each week and that is always interesting. Building relationships as we go.

And the additional language skills has helped my search in the markets for spices and things like baking powder and baking soda. Canela is cinnamon, albahaca is basil and sal de ajo is garlic salt! (gotta have sal de ajo to make my cousin Julie's "Heart Attack Bread").

The markets in general are great learning experiences, we've gone thoroughly down the aisles in most stores, on the hunt for things we're used to buying but can't find here. For a country that runs on corn, we can't find corn meal for muffins! Tons of corn flour, but no meal or muffin mixes so far. And it was tough to find Worcestershire sauce, though we finally found a small bottle at Walmart in Mazatlan. Chocolate chips...they apparently are scarce and we haven't seen them at all yet. The only chocolate chip cookies we've had since we've been here are ones that Mary Ann made with chips someone sent her! No Skittles either...both Ralph and Tine will have withdrawals as we were her source up to now because they aren't available in Norway either!

We've both struggled to find our medications here...Ralph has settled into a substitute, but equal med, but is taking two a day rather than one because they don't come in the dosage he needs. Mine has been tougher to find. After weeks of having people tell me mine wasn't available in Mexico at all I ran into a doctor at the post office and in our chat with him I mentioned my difficulties in finding the goofy stuff. The spelling was just a little off in English from the Spanish and was causing part of the confusion, so he wrote it out in Spanish for me. It also is mostly distributed in a compound here, rather than solo, and with all my allergies I wasn't up to the challenge of experimenting with a compound. I was at last able to get a month's supply of the solo to tide me over until a shipment from an online pharmacy arrives. Please pray for prompt delivery of that order!

We are also expanding our knowledge of Mexican cuisine, visiting more and more of the local restaurants as we walk through town. Now that we are healthy again, we are getting braver about experimenting! I've gotten away from a soda at lunch and now try to have something more Mexican, such as Jamica (cold tea made from Hibiscus blossoms), Horchata (interestingly creamy cold beverage made from rice and almonds) and sangria...grape juice and I don't know what else, but it's definitely yummy. Given the option of comida Americana or comida Mexicana Ralph will vote for Mexicana every time. Got to get a good cookbook and expand my repertoire of authentic Mexican cooking. This is not the stuff you get at most Mexican restaurants in Washington! But we do miss some of our favorites from the best Mexican restaurant in the state: El Nopal in Olympia! Hi guys!!

Our quiet little town will have an important visitor on Wednesday at 12:30, presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrado will be appearing at our main plaza, giving a campaign speech. He's steadily been tops in the polls so I would imagine there will be people from throughout the district who will show up to hear what he has to say! Not sure if we want to go and listen or avoid the crowd. We'll have to see.

Ralph walks down the block to get his Cokes and he always stops to visit with the teens and the younger boys playing soccer or baseball in the street. They've gotten into a routine of high fiving, low fiving, five on the side, etc. These boys used to totally ignore our greetings as they passed by our house, but now, they not only greet us, but often initiate the greeting. Progress indeed! I remember when we first moved in I was taking out the trash one afternoon and I heard the crack of a bat and saw the ball whizzing my direction. It dropped just behind me and rolled down to me. When I picked it up, I think they all thought I was going to keep it and they were quite surprised when I pitched it back to them. Who knew that was the beginning of budding friendships with these kids.

The work at the camps continues to be interesting and exciting...and we have gotten some notes from folks who are sending us tapes and Bibles to use in that ministry. Thanks so much!

Thanks to all of you for your prayers and your support...been able to get through the bumps in the road because of you and we are grateful.