- where the population swells with thousands of migrant workers during the growing season
- with no car dealerships, but two tractor dealerships: New Holland and John Deere!
- with no fast food, but plenty of food options from street vendors to full blown sit down restaurants and everything in between
- that is hemmed in on all sides by acres and acres of crops in various stages of growth, some just planted and others ready to be harvested now: a wide variety of peppers, potatoes, cucumbers, melons, tomatoes, onions, corn, jicama, watermelon and much more
- where a man walking around with an unsheathed machete doesn’t even raise an eyebrow, and I’d guess just about anywhere in the states the cops would use a taser and/or pepper spray to subdue him before he was arrested and hauled off to jail
- where you can wake up to a parade, or to a cattle drive through town, depending on the day
- where a beautiful hand-made saddle hangs from the tree outside a local store and no one would think of bothering it unless they wanted to buy it
- where your electric bill is hand-delivered to your house by an electric company employee
- you pay your electric bill by walking into the office, swiping your bill in front of the bar code scanner, putting your money (paper and/or coins) in the appropriate spots in the machine and getting your change delivered in a tray at the bottom, clinking like a slot machine jackpot!
- where you awake to song birds each morning, and sometimes to the neighbors chickens crowing!
- where there are two postal employees: one mans the post office and the other delivers mail on a motorcycle with leather saddle bags for the mail
- where the vast majority of the businesses close for comida (lunch) between 2 and 4 each day
- where visiting with shoppers is considered to be part of the service in each business
- where you can buy a mango on a stick or a few nice, fresh dates from a street vendor
- where a fruit drink is just as likely to come in a plastic bag as in a cup, just add a straw and you are set to go
- where loud booming brings us outside just in time to see unexpected fireworks from the carnival that visits town…beautiful light show!
- where furniture vendors set up on the plaza to sell their handmade wares
- where your flower garden blooms even in winter!
This week has been one of the best ones so far on so many levels.
- We’ve both been healthy. Praise the Lord!
- Our Spanish is improving and we are able to communicate and learn more and more. PTL!
- We did have a cattle drive down our street, but by the time I heard it and realized what it was and got my camera I just caught the very end of it. Ralph said there were more than 100 beef on the hoof!
- We also had a carnivale parade with a lot of floats and women of every age dressed up in beautiful gowns and riding on the floats, some guys too. Everyone had eggs filled with confetti that they were throwing at each other and cracking on each other’s heads.
- We discovered a tiny lizard on our patio.
- The landlord rented the small upstairs apartment to a guy without a car, so we get the extra cochera to park in, turning our cochera into an additional covered patio! We celebrated by purchasing two metal rocking chairs to sit in out there.
- A neighbor brought her plants to me for safekeeping while she visits in Puerto Vallarta. Praise for the budding friendship and relationship building!
- Another neighbor brought us each a chocolate covered frozen banana with sprinkles that she made herself.
- We got our internet service and had a video chat with Greg, Darane’, Savannah and Nick! Woohoo! We are thankful…
- We called several family members and a few friends using the internet calling service, Skype.
- We also got our first pack of mail from home and were able to do our taxes!
- We got our kitchen cupboards (Genaro made them!) and the guys put them up in the kitchen and I put stuff away at last.
- Next week: The bookcase (also made by Genaro)! We may get completely unpacked yet!
Ralph has been so excited at the openness of everyone they meet at the camps, everyone wants to learn more, they want Bibles, New Testaments and Gospels of John! They want to sit down and study right away, they want Gospel tapes in their languages! It’s amazing. The guys are welcomed with open arms by the workers, but the other night when they returned to Campo Santa Lucia the guard that was there didn’t want them to visit or even to stay unless they went to Campo San Juan and got specific permission. So they prayed their way over there and were shuttled about to loads of people, handing out tracts the whole way and finally got permission to visit both of those camps any time they like. Next week they’ll be going out much earlier, around 2 or so, hoping they can spend more time with the various groups of people.
We made a prayer request to our prayer team this morning for cassette tapes, a tape copier and the Spanish language materials that we’ll need as we visit. There are thousands of people…God is so good to gather them all up here and send us to speak with them and share the love of Christ! We are proud to serve Him!
We’ve begun learning the Evangelism Explosion materials, from a Spanish language booklet and CD and hope to work through the material quickly and be able to begin using it soon.
Thanks for your prayers and your continued support of the Lord’s work here…
Love and Blessings,
Ralph and Chris
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