The prayers:
Please pray for Francisco and his family. He's one of the folks from Tayoltita, he's married, but his wife has left and he's working and caring for their two children, a boy 8 and a girl 10. Francisco has been quite sick in recent weeks and quite swollen. Darwin and Mary Ann took him back to Mazatlan with them two weeks ago to see a doctor there and the doc did a basic check up and gave him some tests and some meds to reduce his swelling.
This week he went back to Mazatlan with Darwin and apparently he's got some serious health issues concerning his heart and kidneys and he must return to Mazatlan this coming Tuesday for more testing with a specialist on Wednesday morning. The outcome doesn't look too good from a human perspective, as the specialist said that left untreated as he was he would have died within six months. The issues are not only his health but his kids and his wife too. Appreciate your prayers.
Prayers also for our landlord's wife, Maria Luisa. She has diabetes, and has been having vision problems for some time now. Jacobo has been taking her to various doctors and they have been doing various treatments without much improvement. Additionally, she seems much more frail recently, though she will tell you that she's actually feeling better. She's lost more weight, and was thin when we first met her in January. Jacobo recently got a referral to an eye specialist in Los Angeles, and another in Yuma, AZ. They are preparing to take a trip to see them both in hopes of having her failing vision restored. Please keep them in prayer not only for all the health professionals that they will see but also for travel mercies as they drive up for these appointments.
Prayers also for two friends at home in Washington having surgeries coming up soon. For Ted, our neighbor from around the corner in Olympia, who has knee surgery scheduled for May 5 and Carolyn, from our small group at church, who has her surgery scheduled for May 17. Both have been in a lot of pain, and it is our prayer that the Lord will guide the surgeons and get them on the road to recovery, free from the pain that has plagued them.
Prayers also for our newly reformatted team meetings, the first of which is tomorrow. We'll be meeting at a beach, worshiping, communing, sharing and eating comida together. The beach, worship and communion are new additions to the meeting, coming out of our visit from our personnel guy. And we'll only be meeting once a month now, rather than every other week. May 1 is also a national holiday in Mexico, the day of the worker, Dia de Trabajo.
Prayers for our visa process. We've just discovered that Pastor Lupe in Mazatlan must write letters for the three of us (me, Ralph and Tom) and send them off to Mexico City, and then we have to wait for a letter back from them before we can apply for our visas. We all need to at least apply for our visas before the end of June or we'll have to drive to Nogales and enter the country again on a tourist visa! Please pray that Lupe gets the letters out this week, and that the officials in Mexico City also act quickly on the requests and return them promptly so that we can get the process going officially and avoid a trip north! Lidia, Cristina and Gracia are Mexican citizens and don't need visas!!
Prayers for Darwin, Mary Ann and Gracie as they prepare for a couple of months of travel to visit and encourage the churches in Puebla and Nogales before they head out to San Diego for their vacation. They expect to leave sometime in mid-June when Gracie gets out of school and return in early September. Travel mercies, good relationships with the church leaders and good rest and relaxation with family in the states.
Prayers that Presidente Fox WOULD NOT sign a bill before him from the Mexican congress, which would eliminate penalties for those caught with small amounts of some drugs. Sales of drugs in any quantity would still be illegal, but certain possessions by "consumers" would not. Here's a list of the drugs and the "okay" amounts for personal use:
opium (raw, to be smoked) 5 grams
heroin, 25 mg
marijuana 5 grams
cocaine 500 mg
LSD .015 mg
MDA 200 mg
MDMA (Ecstasy) 200 mg
mescaline 1 g
peyote 1 KG (2.2 pounds)
psilocybin (concentrate, pure, active ingredient) 100 mg
hallucinogenic mushrooms (raw, off the farm) 250 mg
amphetamines 100 mg
dexamphetamines 40 mg
Phencyclidine (PCP, or Angel Dust) 7 mg
methamphetamines 200 mg
Nalbuphine (synthetic opiate) 10 mg
The praises!!
Praise as this week and last I was able to read the scripture in church when Pastor called on me!! I was surprised, as he's never called on me before and now he's done it two Sundays in a row. I'm thankful that my Spanish has improved enough that I can be understood when I speak and also when I read aloud, so I didn't embarrass myself. Our learning is not just speaking, but reading and writing as well. I also was thankful this week as my bookcase Genaro made arrived and it is a thing of beauty! He did such a nice job with it, even put it on casters so I can move it easily to dust under it! I was able to write a thank you note to him and Carmen in Spanish. Carmen would accept nothing less of course!! We were so blessed to have these two as our hosts for our first month in Mexico.
Praise also for an early morning visit from Pastor Jose on Thursday. He arrived at 7:45, I was cleaning the patio and he was cleaning the church and he came by with more tamales de Elota for us, which was very nice. He stayed and chatted for more than an hour and then asked if he could accompany Darwin and Ralph to Campo Santa Lucia that evening!!! What a tremendous blessing! We had been praying that he would take an interest in the work in the camps so we were thrilled that he asked to come along. He had a blast and asked if he could go again next week!! We weren't sure if he would or not, but this morning in church he prayed for the people in the camps, and after service he reiterated to us that he wanted to go again on Thursday!! Praise the Lord!!
Praise also for communion today in church. This is the first time we've had communion since January 8 at our home church in Olympia!!! The churches and pastors here have been trained, but they "just don't do it". But this morning when we arrived for church Mimi (Pastor's daughter) was preparing the wine and wafers! Hopefully La Cena del Senor (The Lord's Supper) will become a regular part of our worship times. That's our prayer!
Thanks for praying and praising along with us. We love and appreciate you all so much.
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Town and home tour
We've had several people ask to see more of our town and more of our home, so here goes!
We rent an apartment in a building with six other families, all in varying sizes of apartments. Ours is one of the largest, with two bedrooms, many of the others have just one. We are at one end, the landlord and his wife (Jacobo and Maria Luisa) are at the other on the bottom floors. Diana and her husband and their roommate live above us. That's their patio above our cochera.
Most places here, including ours, have no water heater, no furnace and the whole house runs on one breaker. Water for our shower is heated by a coil that runs into the shower head. This isn't our shower, but it shows the same thing and the wire running directly into the shower head. Took some getting used to but it works great!!
Here's a look at our patio, where we have breakfast, rest, read, visit and pray, as well as garden and do laundry:
Our living room:
Our kitchen:
Our bedroom. Notice no blankets! We've already lost the quilt, which we needed when we first moved here, then the blanket, and now we are down to just the sheets!
Our guest room:
A view of La Cruz from the air:
This is a look up and down our street. In the "down" view, that's the rest of the apartment building on the left and the church on the right. In the "up" view, that's Hotel JR on the right:
Plaza La Cruz is at our end of town:
The municipal plaza at the other end (also known as Miguel Hidalgo Plaza). The Catholic church is located on the plaza. This large plaza is where most stuff happens in town. We walk up here every day and get an "agua fresca" of some kind and people watch and visit.
The municipal building is across the street from municipal plaza and the interior is an open courtyard design, very pretty. There's even a large mural in the stairwell, but it's too dark and too big to get a picture:
A couple of the side streets, the second one shows Rin Rin Pizza, the largest pizza joint in town. Two of our neighbors, Diana and Luis Francisco work here. But we get our pizza from Felix, across from Hotel JR, MUCH better pizza and one block from home!
This tree trunk looks like an elephant foot to me, and it marks where one of the larger ferreterias is in town...big hardware store. They put a lot of their merchandise out on the sidewalk, sometimes you have to squeeze by. It's not Home Depot, but it's big for here.
The La Cruz Post Office:
Uncrowded beach at Playa Ceuta, 10 minutes from the house. You won't find one like this in Mazatlan!!
Fishers at Playa Ceuta:
Samples of shells from Playa Ceuta:
That's the tour...thanks for asking!
Have a blessed day!
We rent an apartment in a building with six other families, all in varying sizes of apartments. Ours is one of the largest, with two bedrooms, many of the others have just one. We are at one end, the landlord and his wife (Jacobo and Maria Luisa) are at the other on the bottom floors. Diana and her husband and their roommate live above us. That's their patio above our cochera.
Most places here, including ours, have no water heater, no furnace and the whole house runs on one breaker. Water for our shower is heated by a coil that runs into the shower head. This isn't our shower, but it shows the same thing and the wire running directly into the shower head. Took some getting used to but it works great!!
Here's a look at our patio, where we have breakfast, rest, read, visit and pray, as well as garden and do laundry:
Our living room:
Our kitchen:
Our bedroom. Notice no blankets! We've already lost the quilt, which we needed when we first moved here, then the blanket, and now we are down to just the sheets!
Our guest room:
A view of La Cruz from the air:
This is a look up and down our street. In the "down" view, that's the rest of the apartment building on the left and the church on the right. In the "up" view, that's Hotel JR on the right:
Plaza La Cruz is at our end of town:
The municipal plaza at the other end (also known as Miguel Hidalgo Plaza). The Catholic church is located on the plaza. This large plaza is where most stuff happens in town. We walk up here every day and get an "agua fresca" of some kind and people watch and visit.
The municipal building is across the street from municipal plaza and the interior is an open courtyard design, very pretty. There's even a large mural in the stairwell, but it's too dark and too big to get a picture:
A couple of the side streets, the second one shows Rin Rin Pizza, the largest pizza joint in town. Two of our neighbors, Diana and Luis Francisco work here. But we get our pizza from Felix, across from Hotel JR, MUCH better pizza and one block from home!
This tree trunk looks like an elephant foot to me, and it marks where one of the larger ferreterias is in town...big hardware store. They put a lot of their merchandise out on the sidewalk, sometimes you have to squeeze by. It's not Home Depot, but it's big for here.
The La Cruz Post Office:
Uncrowded beach at Playa Ceuta, 10 minutes from the house. You won't find one like this in Mazatlan!!
Fishers at Playa Ceuta:
Samples of shells from Playa Ceuta:
That's the tour...thanks for asking!
Have a blessed day!
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Life and times
Wow, time has been flying by, more than three months in Mexico and we marvel at all that has happened and all that we have learned.
We have finally assembled all the materials we need to apply for our FM1 visas and hope to begin that process within the next couple of weeks. Darwin really wants Tom and Ralph to handle the whole application process, and I'm not sure either one of them is looking forward to going downtown Mazatlan and dealing with government officials all day, plus loads of paperwork. There's a list of 11 things that need to be filled out, photocopied and/or paid for, plus we'll need 12 photos!! Goodness. They don't make it easy, and this process needs to be repeated each year. Some people have said that the process itself can take up to a year, so you finish just in time to begin again! Too exciting. Please pray that the process goes smoothly!!
This week brought a noticeable change in the weather as well, it's definitely getting warmer!! We are now brushing up against 90 most days, but it is quite tolerable. They say as the rainy season approaches we'll look back on these balmy days and wish we could go back to them. It will be interesting to see how rainy the rainy season actually ends up. There has been a drought here for some time with much less rain than normal. We'll see if that pattern continues or if the weather returns to it's normal, much wetter pattern. As native northwesterners we are used to tons of rain, and should be able to tolerate warm rain for two or three months, as opposed cold rain for six!!
Pastor Jose stopped by with a new taste treat for us this week, he brought us hot fresh tamales maiz de Elota! What an amazing treat! They are tamales that can only be described as sweet cream corn in tamale maza. My, were they ever good and he brought enough that we had them for cena two nights in a row! When I saw Gloria at church today I thanked her for them and she told me that they also could make tacos with that same sweet taste. Lots to learn about food here, but also lots of time to learn, thankfully.
When Darwin, Mary Ann and Gracie were up this week we decided to go out to the town of El Salto and check out the church building there. The town itself is a pretty little village, complete with schools, homes, sports fields and a little Catholic chapel and our small church. The church is situated on a nice property with an absolutely HUGE tree providing tons of shade. That's Mary Ann, Gracie and me standing in front of the tree, Ralph taking the picture trying to get us and the tree all in. Impossible!! The church itself is a great building, built many years ago by volunteers from the US. There is no pastor there now, and no congregation meeting there either. Please pray that the Lord would raise up a Mexican leader for that church.
It's funny because we've been out that way before, but didn't know exactly where the town was, we were so very close, but drove right by it!! The town was moved from it's old location just a few miles down the road in 1986 to make way for the lake, El Salto, which I now know means The Jump! They dammed the Rio Elota to form the lake, then stocked it with bass and it's become one of the premier bass fishing lakes in the world. $1,595 USD for 4 days/3 nights at the lodge there!! Big bucks, considering that doesn't count your gear or your flight to Mazatlan!
We got the first of the tracts we ordered this week, and though we had to pay duty to get them from the PO, it was reasonable!! Ralph was able to use them for the first time when he and Darwin visited Campo Santa Lucia this week. The guys were hassled by the new crop of guards, and saying the magic word "Imelda" (the head lady) just started a bunch of phone calls to Campo San Juan. Darwin fixed the problem by handing over a couple of his copies of the Jesus video, and with that they were on their way. Please pray that the camps stay open for us to go and talk with people about the Lord.
Also, some of you are wondering why there are no photos of the camps on the blog. It's because cameras are not allowed. The big farm companies have taken some heat from photos that have been published by others and therefore no longer allow cameras in.
Our medicine order is five weeks out and no sign of it, so we contacted the pharmacy. They feel we should have had it by now and also think that it's likely lost so they have reshipped it. Hopefully we should have it in about three weeks. But that means that we'll have to be on the hunt for a months worth of meds when we go into Mazatlan tomorrow. Please pray for the safe arrival of the meds we've ordered (and low or no duty!!) and that we can get the month worth of meds we need tomorrow. I never would have dreamed that this would be a hassle for us!!
One of the people that we practice our Spanish with, Beatrice, surprised us with a visit to the house this past week, a first! Sadly she came by to tell us that the restaurant she had been working for was locked up and when she inquired she learned that the owners had not paid for some things and that until they did the business would remain closed. So that left Beatrice, a single mom with six kids, out of a job. Amazingly, she was as upbeat as ever, completely confident that she'll land something else soon, and we did see her downtown applying for jobs later in the week, still hopeful she'd find something. Please pray for her and her family.
When we were out exploring some of the back roads south of town the other day we ran across this hilltop shrine, Maria Guadalupe del Cerrito. We've seen many roadside shrines, some just tiny roadside crosses, some small doll house size buildings, some just paintings of Our Lady of Guadalupe on rock faces and some large family shines at people's homes. This one was by far the largest we've seen to date and it's really kind of out in the middle of no where!
And our little lizard in the palm tree has been so active and so quick, we haven't been able to get a picture of him until this week. I think he trusts us more now, as he was way down on the trunk, not more than four feet from the ground and he just sat there while I approached with the camera!
Please continue to pray for our language and culture learning, relationships with our fellow workers and our neighbors and for all the people in the various camps around us!
Thanks for your prayers and your support...we appreciate it so much and our honored to serve the Lord here.
Love and blessings,
Ralph & Chris
We have finally assembled all the materials we need to apply for our FM1 visas and hope to begin that process within the next couple of weeks. Darwin really wants Tom and Ralph to handle the whole application process, and I'm not sure either one of them is looking forward to going downtown Mazatlan and dealing with government officials all day, plus loads of paperwork. There's a list of 11 things that need to be filled out, photocopied and/or paid for, plus we'll need 12 photos!! Goodness. They don't make it easy, and this process needs to be repeated each year. Some people have said that the process itself can take up to a year, so you finish just in time to begin again! Too exciting. Please pray that the process goes smoothly!!
This week brought a noticeable change in the weather as well, it's definitely getting warmer!! We are now brushing up against 90 most days, but it is quite tolerable. They say as the rainy season approaches we'll look back on these balmy days and wish we could go back to them. It will be interesting to see how rainy the rainy season actually ends up. There has been a drought here for some time with much less rain than normal. We'll see if that pattern continues or if the weather returns to it's normal, much wetter pattern. As native northwesterners we are used to tons of rain, and should be able to tolerate warm rain for two or three months, as opposed cold rain for six!!
Pastor Jose stopped by with a new taste treat for us this week, he brought us hot fresh tamales maiz de Elota! What an amazing treat! They are tamales that can only be described as sweet cream corn in tamale maza. My, were they ever good and he brought enough that we had them for cena two nights in a row! When I saw Gloria at church today I thanked her for them and she told me that they also could make tacos with that same sweet taste. Lots to learn about food here, but also lots of time to learn, thankfully.
When Darwin, Mary Ann and Gracie were up this week we decided to go out to the town of El Salto and check out the church building there. The town itself is a pretty little village, complete with schools, homes, sports fields and a little Catholic chapel and our small church. The church is situated on a nice property with an absolutely HUGE tree providing tons of shade. That's Mary Ann, Gracie and me standing in front of the tree, Ralph taking the picture trying to get us and the tree all in. Impossible!! The church itself is a great building, built many years ago by volunteers from the US. There is no pastor there now, and no congregation meeting there either. Please pray that the Lord would raise up a Mexican leader for that church.
It's funny because we've been out that way before, but didn't know exactly where the town was, we were so very close, but drove right by it!! The town was moved from it's old location just a few miles down the road in 1986 to make way for the lake, El Salto, which I now know means The Jump! They dammed the Rio Elota to form the lake, then stocked it with bass and it's become one of the premier bass fishing lakes in the world. $1,595 USD for 4 days/3 nights at the lodge there!! Big bucks, considering that doesn't count your gear or your flight to Mazatlan!
We got the first of the tracts we ordered this week, and though we had to pay duty to get them from the PO, it was reasonable!! Ralph was able to use them for the first time when he and Darwin visited Campo Santa Lucia this week. The guys were hassled by the new crop of guards, and saying the magic word "Imelda" (the head lady) just started a bunch of phone calls to Campo San Juan. Darwin fixed the problem by handing over a couple of his copies of the Jesus video, and with that they were on their way. Please pray that the camps stay open for us to go and talk with people about the Lord.
Also, some of you are wondering why there are no photos of the camps on the blog. It's because cameras are not allowed. The big farm companies have taken some heat from photos that have been published by others and therefore no longer allow cameras in.
Our medicine order is five weeks out and no sign of it, so we contacted the pharmacy. They feel we should have had it by now and also think that it's likely lost so they have reshipped it. Hopefully we should have it in about three weeks. But that means that we'll have to be on the hunt for a months worth of meds when we go into Mazatlan tomorrow. Please pray for the safe arrival of the meds we've ordered (and low or no duty!!) and that we can get the month worth of meds we need tomorrow. I never would have dreamed that this would be a hassle for us!!
One of the people that we practice our Spanish with, Beatrice, surprised us with a visit to the house this past week, a first! Sadly she came by to tell us that the restaurant she had been working for was locked up and when she inquired she learned that the owners had not paid for some things and that until they did the business would remain closed. So that left Beatrice, a single mom with six kids, out of a job. Amazingly, she was as upbeat as ever, completely confident that she'll land something else soon, and we did see her downtown applying for jobs later in the week, still hopeful she'd find something. Please pray for her and her family.
When we were out exploring some of the back roads south of town the other day we ran across this hilltop shrine, Maria Guadalupe del Cerrito. We've seen many roadside shrines, some just tiny roadside crosses, some small doll house size buildings, some just paintings of Our Lady of Guadalupe on rock faces and some large family shines at people's homes. This one was by far the largest we've seen to date and it's really kind of out in the middle of no where!
And our little lizard in the palm tree has been so active and so quick, we haven't been able to get a picture of him until this week. I think he trusts us more now, as he was way down on the trunk, not more than four feet from the ground and he just sat there while I approached with the camera!
Please continue to pray for our language and culture learning, relationships with our fellow workers and our neighbors and for all the people in the various camps around us!
Thanks for your prayers and your support...we appreciate it so much and our honored to serve the Lord here.
Love and blessings,
Ralph & Chris
Sunday, April 16, 2006
He is Risen Indeed!
Happy Easter/Resurrection Day!
We are having a relatively quiet day as opposed to the rest of the week, which was very busy. We watched the services live from North Heights this morning to get the day rolling and then went to our church here in La Cruz. Just us two plus the pastor, his wife and daughter! Lowest attendance yet, and on this day when many churches in the US swell with family and with seekers. We were just amazed. But we had a nice service and then came home and had comida. We've just been relaxing and reading a bit this afternoon, making few phone calls.
The week began with our team meeting in Mazatlan, and it was extraordinarily long as our personnel director was here from Minneapolis and he had some remarks for us. The good part of it was we had a time of worship together in English! It was really wonderful, and something I think all of us miss quite a bit. The bad part of it was waiting for the personnel guy and Darwin to complete a meeting with the pastor of the downtown church. It took much longer than expected and we were waiting lunch on them. We finally just decided to eat because the food was sitting out too long. Don't want to do that here. Then we had a good session with recommendations for the field at large. Then a bus trip back to Darwin's where we'd left the truck, a mad dash through Wal-Mart to grab a few things and then the hour drive home...got here about 8, totally bushed!
Tuesday brought a long day with the painter. I'd wanted to paint the kitchen yellow, even bought the paint and then found out that the previous tenant had painted "call" on the walls. Call is a chalky whitewash and had to come off and a sealer had to be applied before my spanking new yellow went on. Decided that was too big of a job for me, so Ralph talked with the landlord and got his recommendation for a painter. He was here all day Tuesday and got the job done, but I was disappointed with the coverage. Found out he was watering the paint down to make it go farther, so now I have paint left over and a lot of areas that need another coat. I'll get to that next week. And even though he used the drop cloths we provided we ended up with tons of yellow splatter all over the kitchen counter, my new cabinets and my white tile floors!! It took him about 90 minutes just to make a stab at getting the paint of the floor. Finally told him to take off and we'd finish the rest. After lots of scrubbing and two thorough washings I think the floor is starting to look presentable again. Ironically, different painters were in Lidia and Tom's new house this week with the same result, only they have tons of white paint on their tan floors!!
Wednesday we watched the girls for Tom and Lidia while they did some initial organization at the house and we also helped them get caught up on their laundry, as the installation of the washer didn't happen as planned at the new place. Actually, pretty much nothing happened as planned at the new place and after much delay and three nights in a hotel (paid for by their new landlord) Wednesday was their first official day in the house. They are still in the throws of unpacking, but the place is starting to take shape and routines are beginning to return to their lives. They are quite happy to be in their house at last. Friday was Tom's 31st birthday and they invited us over to celebrate with them on Saturday. Lidia cooked a fine meal, and we ate on their dining room table that made the trip from Minnesota. We had homemade rolls, baked chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, a veggie platter and key lime pie for dessert! Yum!
Thursday we had all of the Jacksons with us, Darwin, Mary Ann and Gracie all came up instead of just Darwin. We had comida with them, walked around town a bit, but being it was Maundy Thursday, most businesses were completely closed down. We came back to the house and visited a while and then took off for Campo Santa Lucia to visit with the folks out there. Mary Ann, Gracie and I went one direction with the guys going another. We had a great time visiting with the ladies of Santa Lucia! We were welcomed to sit and visit several times and had some wonderful exchanges. They were all happy and looking forward to having Friday as a day off, even though they had to work today.
Most of the folks we visited with were from Guerrero, far south of here. They spend their days working in either the corn, red pepper or tomato fields and their evenings washing, cooking, cleaning and taking care of their families. They are almost all planning to head back home at the end of May and are looking forward to it. The women we had extended conversations with had some amazing stories to tell about hanging on to their faith, some of them with husbands who are adamantly opposed to that idea. Some persecute their own families for their beliefs. One woman expressed that her daughters wanted to learn more about the Lord but fear their dad. She asked us for something we could give the girls, and we gave them a small, inconspicuous Gospel of John. Hopefully, their dad will let them keep it. Please keep this family and all the migrant families in the camps in your prayers...lots of struggles there but nothing the Lord can't deal with.
Friday, virtually everything in town was closed except for the big supermarket. People said everyone was at the beach. However, there was a rather large procession through town with several men taking turns carrying a huge cross on their shoulders at mid-day, and then in the evening we heard mournful drumming and went to check it out. Another big candle light procession through town, this time with a crystal coffin. Sadly, there was also a lot of drinking and partying and a big dance at the social club until all hours too...add to that they were burning off some of the crops and town was filled with smoke. All in all, not a pleasant evening!
Tonight, we talked with Ralph's family in North Dakota (they were actually gathered in Minnesota for Easter) and had a good visit with them, and we also were able to talk with my cousin and with the kids too, all wonderful conversations. And we were invited to a neighbor lady's birthday party tonight. They own the little grocery where Ralph gets his cokes. We arrived fashionably late by the standard here, and were still the only guests there, and they weren't quite set up for the party either. From the look and the sound they were expecting a big crowd, they had the street blocked off even (not an uncommon occurrence here) and the stereo going full blast, we hung around for a little bit trying to see how late they were going to actually start and decided it was too late for us!! So we wandered back home again.
We praise the Lord for you and your prayers and support. We still need prayer for language and culture learning, for relationships in the community and at the camps, for the owners and security at the camps that they continue to allow our visits to the people living and working in each camp, and for discernment about invitations such as tonight’s. It's tough to know what to do in some social situations and we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings or make a social error if we can avoid it!
Blessings to you all.
We are having a relatively quiet day as opposed to the rest of the week, which was very busy. We watched the services live from North Heights this morning to get the day rolling and then went to our church here in La Cruz. Just us two plus the pastor, his wife and daughter! Lowest attendance yet, and on this day when many churches in the US swell with family and with seekers. We were just amazed. But we had a nice service and then came home and had comida. We've just been relaxing and reading a bit this afternoon, making few phone calls.
The week began with our team meeting in Mazatlan, and it was extraordinarily long as our personnel director was here from Minneapolis and he had some remarks for us. The good part of it was we had a time of worship together in English! It was really wonderful, and something I think all of us miss quite a bit. The bad part of it was waiting for the personnel guy and Darwin to complete a meeting with the pastor of the downtown church. It took much longer than expected and we were waiting lunch on them. We finally just decided to eat because the food was sitting out too long. Don't want to do that here. Then we had a good session with recommendations for the field at large. Then a bus trip back to Darwin's where we'd left the truck, a mad dash through Wal-Mart to grab a few things and then the hour drive home...got here about 8, totally bushed!
Tuesday brought a long day with the painter. I'd wanted to paint the kitchen yellow, even bought the paint and then found out that the previous tenant had painted "call" on the walls. Call is a chalky whitewash and had to come off and a sealer had to be applied before my spanking new yellow went on. Decided that was too big of a job for me, so Ralph talked with the landlord and got his recommendation for a painter. He was here all day Tuesday and got the job done, but I was disappointed with the coverage. Found out he was watering the paint down to make it go farther, so now I have paint left over and a lot of areas that need another coat. I'll get to that next week. And even though he used the drop cloths we provided we ended up with tons of yellow splatter all over the kitchen counter, my new cabinets and my white tile floors!! It took him about 90 minutes just to make a stab at getting the paint of the floor. Finally told him to take off and we'd finish the rest. After lots of scrubbing and two thorough washings I think the floor is starting to look presentable again. Ironically, different painters were in Lidia and Tom's new house this week with the same result, only they have tons of white paint on their tan floors!!
Wednesday we watched the girls for Tom and Lidia while they did some initial organization at the house and we also helped them get caught up on their laundry, as the installation of the washer didn't happen as planned at the new place. Actually, pretty much nothing happened as planned at the new place and after much delay and three nights in a hotel (paid for by their new landlord) Wednesday was their first official day in the house. They are still in the throws of unpacking, but the place is starting to take shape and routines are beginning to return to their lives. They are quite happy to be in their house at last. Friday was Tom's 31st birthday and they invited us over to celebrate with them on Saturday. Lidia cooked a fine meal, and we ate on their dining room table that made the trip from Minnesota. We had homemade rolls, baked chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, a veggie platter and key lime pie for dessert! Yum!
Thursday we had all of the Jacksons with us, Darwin, Mary Ann and Gracie all came up instead of just Darwin. We had comida with them, walked around town a bit, but being it was Maundy Thursday, most businesses were completely closed down. We came back to the house and visited a while and then took off for Campo Santa Lucia to visit with the folks out there. Mary Ann, Gracie and I went one direction with the guys going another. We had a great time visiting with the ladies of Santa Lucia! We were welcomed to sit and visit several times and had some wonderful exchanges. They were all happy and looking forward to having Friday as a day off, even though they had to work today.
Most of the folks we visited with were from Guerrero, far south of here. They spend their days working in either the corn, red pepper or tomato fields and their evenings washing, cooking, cleaning and taking care of their families. They are almost all planning to head back home at the end of May and are looking forward to it. The women we had extended conversations with had some amazing stories to tell about hanging on to their faith, some of them with husbands who are adamantly opposed to that idea. Some persecute their own families for their beliefs. One woman expressed that her daughters wanted to learn more about the Lord but fear their dad. She asked us for something we could give the girls, and we gave them a small, inconspicuous Gospel of John. Hopefully, their dad will let them keep it. Please keep this family and all the migrant families in the camps in your prayers...lots of struggles there but nothing the Lord can't deal with.
Friday, virtually everything in town was closed except for the big supermarket. People said everyone was at the beach. However, there was a rather large procession through town with several men taking turns carrying a huge cross on their shoulders at mid-day, and then in the evening we heard mournful drumming and went to check it out. Another big candle light procession through town, this time with a crystal coffin. Sadly, there was also a lot of drinking and partying and a big dance at the social club until all hours too...add to that they were burning off some of the crops and town was filled with smoke. All in all, not a pleasant evening!
Tonight, we talked with Ralph's family in North Dakota (they were actually gathered in Minnesota for Easter) and had a good visit with them, and we also were able to talk with my cousin and with the kids too, all wonderful conversations. And we were invited to a neighbor lady's birthday party tonight. They own the little grocery where Ralph gets his cokes. We arrived fashionably late by the standard here, and were still the only guests there, and they weren't quite set up for the party either. From the look and the sound they were expecting a big crowd, they had the street blocked off even (not an uncommon occurrence here) and the stereo going full blast, we hung around for a little bit trying to see how late they were going to actually start and decided it was too late for us!! So we wandered back home again.
We praise the Lord for you and your prayers and support. We still need prayer for language and culture learning, for relationships in the community and at the camps, for the owners and security at the camps that they continue to allow our visits to the people living and working in each camp, and for discernment about invitations such as tonight’s. It's tough to know what to do in some social situations and we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings or make a social error if we can avoid it!
Blessings to you all.
Monday, April 3, 2006
A different kind of week
If we have learned one thing living here it's that days are never routine, and flexibility is key. This week has been no different!
Since we were in Mazatlan last Monday for team meeting anyway, we decided to pop in on Toodie and Alton Knutson, the retired missionaries that we lunched with a few weeks back. They are getting ready to head back to Minnesota, and we wanted to see them before they took off for home. We had a nice visit with them, and were pleased to find out that they are hoping to be back in time for Christmas. That would be wonderful! They are the nicest folks.
Ralph had an opportunity to evangelize our Mormon neighbors too...it was an intense hour, with all three of them presenting their views, and at one point the two young men broke into song. Never had that happen before, and we've talked with lots of Mormon Elders and Sisters over the years. They will be back for more I'm sure... and since they are neighbors we see them every day anyway!
And speaking of neighbors, we were gifted with tomatoes from both Candy and Juan Manuel this week...so we've been feasting on these wonderful gifts. Vine ripened, fresh from their gardens. Eating them whole, on salads and in sandwiches! Yum!
We debated whether to go and see Sr. Lopez Obrador, presidential candidate. We didn't know if we wanted to mess with the crowds in the mid-day heat, and we didn't want to be seen as being involved in politics as guests here either. After much thought and prayer, we decided to go and observe and our neighbors also were along, Jacobo, Juan Manual and even Pastor Jose joined us on the plaza. It's a funny thing about politics, they appear to be the same here as in the U.S., but without the big motorcades and hoards of police, secret service and campaign security people, metal detectors, etc. No metal detectors in Municipal Plaza, and Sr. Lopez Obrador arrived in a minivan. But they set up a rope line, just like at home, and he worked it, just like a politician at home would. That's where the five of us were, on the rope line, so we all got to see him up close and personal and shake his hand. Ralph and I decided not to stay for the actual speech though, so we said our farewells to our neighbors and wandered back through town and homeward. Traffic was a bit heavier but that was about all the disruption there was in town.
As we were walking home, we met another fellow citizen of La Cruz, Antonio. He works in the transmission shop. He was quite chatty, wanting to know who we were, where we were from, and was astonished to find that we live here, and are not on vacation. He wanted to talk about our family back in Washington and whether or not Ralph liked to fish...and of course then the two of them were off and running talking about fishing at El Salto. He says the best time to go is in November or December and he says the fishing is fine there. I'm sure Ralph and Tom will be checking it out when the time comes, maybe Antonio will accompany them?? You never know.
We got our tax refund back on Friday and out of that we planned to buy a bed for our guest bedroom. It's been ordered and the mattress itself should be delivered any moment now, and the frame will be here on Friday or Saturday... it has to come from Culiacan, about 100K north of us. Takes a bit longer to get a queen size, but worth the wait. Okay, all of you who've promised to visit...we now have a comfy spot to sleep!
While we were at the Jackson's on Monday Mary Ann gave me a copy of The Book of Virtues, which was a gift to our field from Richard and Leslie Urie, who are now the NW regional coordinators for WMPL, based in Issaquah (Sammamish really) Washington. I get to read it first and then pass it along to Tom and Lidia! It's been a blast to read, so many stories and poems I hadn't read in years, plus many new things that are very thought provoking as well. I'm really enjoying it, and making time to squeeze it in with all my other reading.
All kinds of baby news this week too...our neighbors Candy and Diana are both pregnant, Candy due in October, making Luis a big brother at last, and Diana at the end of August or first of September with their first child. And our friends Tom and Kathy back home got a great 25th wedding anniversary gift from their daughter: their first grandchild! Welcome to Abigale Mercedes! Melissa made it tough for her three brothers to top that gift!!
We also got our first mail in La Cruz this week! A package of CDs with Pastor Bill's sermon messages!! We are so thrilled to have them, thanks to the Bob and Sue for being so thoughtful!
We sprung a leak in the pipe that feeds water to the patio area and the washer and Jacobo called his handyman, Eloy, to come and fix it. In the process of that, Jacobo decided that he also wanted Eloy to harvest the coconuts from our palm and his as they were beginning to fall and were quite dangerous! Nothing like 2 pounds of coconut falling from 40 feet or so...makes a loud bang and ricochets all around the patio. It was quite the thing to see Eloy and Modesto harvesting the more than 50 coconuts from our tree alone. Even though Modesto was quite nimble, it made us both very nervous with him perched on a 20' extension ladder that was standing on a 4-inch wide stairwell wall. Precarious to say the least. But he managed just fine, whacking away at the bunches with a machete and lowering the coconut bunches to the ground by rope. They opened several of them and shared the meat and the juice, and left us some to share with our neighbors and with the Lumppios as well! Then they were off to Jacobo's to finish the harvest!
We discovered two new tiny critters in our neck of the woods, a baby iguana living in the coco palm, and a hummingbird sitting on a nest in one of the trees on the way into town. Plus the little lizard from our patio stopped long enough for me to get a photo. He's only about three inches long from head to the tip of his tail, and he comes out mostly in the evening and hangs out on the roof or wall of the patio. The little iguana, on the other hand is a morning guy, he's up bright and early running all around. He's our entertainment during desayuno (breakfast).
This week when the guys went to Santa Lucia, I was able to go along with them and it was WONDERFUL. It was my first visit to Santa Lucia, to any camp really, since my visit to Campo Ceuta way back in January. I loved every minute of it (well maybe not the hoard of biting mosquitoes!) . So many people to meet, and the demand for the Word of God is really astounding. Darwin had tapes that people had ordered, and a copy of the Jesus video that he'd promised to a family there. Many requests for New Testaments and Gospels of John, a few for Bibles. We split up and Darwin went one direction and we went another, which with our limited Spanish (in our view anyway) was a bit intimidating. But the people were great, and we had several nice chats with folks, and had a bunch of kids that followed us pretty much everywhere we went. One little girl, Yesica, about 10, learned to count to 20 in English after just a few minutes of practice with Ralph...and couldn't wait to tell her friends. She was so excited. What we were excited about is that some of these children, Yesica included, already know the Lord. And most of them in our little entourage could sing Solemente Cristo with us, as well as the Doxology, and could also recite the Lord's Prayer. We were suitably impressed!!
We met back up with Darwin and had a rather lengthy Bible study regarding the Trinity with what started out as two guys and ended up with eight guys. In the end, all but two were convinced by the Scriptures that we used that the Trinity is real and Biblical, and I think even the other two were pretty convinced as well, they just weren't quite ready to admit it. Can't wait to get back out there and visit more.
Lastly, our Personnel Director from WMPL, Chris, arrives on the field tomorrow, staying for a week. He'll be here in La Cruz on Wednesday and Thursday and then we'll be in to Mazatlan for team meeting again next Monday and will see him again before he takes off for home on Tuesday. He'll be visiting the churches and other work here in Sinaloa, and seeing where we all live and such. He's a great guy and we are looking forward to his visit. Please pray for travel mercies and good rest, as he'll be on the road a lot during his stay.
Thanks so much for your prayers and your support. Things to keep in prayer for us are continued language and culture learning, relationships with our fellow workers and neighbors, continued health and rest, Spanish language Bibles, Gospels of John, New Testaments, 90 (60 okay too) minute cassette tapes, new or used to record Gospel messages in various languages, a tape duplicating machine, Spanish language Gospel tracts, including some in cartoon/comic format for children and low level readers. Continued access to the camps, encouragement for Pastor Jose and his family and for Darwin and Mary Ann too. They are continuing all the work they've done in the past, and are now also mentoring us and the Lumppios! Thanks so much!
Love and prayers,
Ralph & Chris
Since we were in Mazatlan last Monday for team meeting anyway, we decided to pop in on Toodie and Alton Knutson, the retired missionaries that we lunched with a few weeks back. They are getting ready to head back to Minnesota, and we wanted to see them before they took off for home. We had a nice visit with them, and were pleased to find out that they are hoping to be back in time for Christmas. That would be wonderful! They are the nicest folks.
Ralph had an opportunity to evangelize our Mormon neighbors too...it was an intense hour, with all three of them presenting their views, and at one point the two young men broke into song. Never had that happen before, and we've talked with lots of Mormon Elders and Sisters over the years. They will be back for more I'm sure... and since they are neighbors we see them every day anyway!
And speaking of neighbors, we were gifted with tomatoes from both Candy and Juan Manuel this week...so we've been feasting on these wonderful gifts. Vine ripened, fresh from their gardens. Eating them whole, on salads and in sandwiches! Yum!
We debated whether to go and see Sr. Lopez Obrador, presidential candidate. We didn't know if we wanted to mess with the crowds in the mid-day heat, and we didn't want to be seen as being involved in politics as guests here either. After much thought and prayer, we decided to go and observe and our neighbors also were along, Jacobo, Juan Manual and even Pastor Jose joined us on the plaza. It's a funny thing about politics, they appear to be the same here as in the U.S., but without the big motorcades and hoards of police, secret service and campaign security people, metal detectors, etc. No metal detectors in Municipal Plaza, and Sr. Lopez Obrador arrived in a minivan. But they set up a rope line, just like at home, and he worked it, just like a politician at home would. That's where the five of us were, on the rope line, so we all got to see him up close and personal and shake his hand. Ralph and I decided not to stay for the actual speech though, so we said our farewells to our neighbors and wandered back through town and homeward. Traffic was a bit heavier but that was about all the disruption there was in town.
As we were walking home, we met another fellow citizen of La Cruz, Antonio. He works in the transmission shop. He was quite chatty, wanting to know who we were, where we were from, and was astonished to find that we live here, and are not on vacation. He wanted to talk about our family back in Washington and whether or not Ralph liked to fish...and of course then the two of them were off and running talking about fishing at El Salto. He says the best time to go is in November or December and he says the fishing is fine there. I'm sure Ralph and Tom will be checking it out when the time comes, maybe Antonio will accompany them?? You never know.
We got our tax refund back on Friday and out of that we planned to buy a bed for our guest bedroom. It's been ordered and the mattress itself should be delivered any moment now, and the frame will be here on Friday or Saturday... it has to come from Culiacan, about 100K north of us. Takes a bit longer to get a queen size, but worth the wait. Okay, all of you who've promised to visit...we now have a comfy spot to sleep!
While we were at the Jackson's on Monday Mary Ann gave me a copy of The Book of Virtues, which was a gift to our field from Richard and Leslie Urie, who are now the NW regional coordinators for WMPL, based in Issaquah (Sammamish really) Washington. I get to read it first and then pass it along to Tom and Lidia! It's been a blast to read, so many stories and poems I hadn't read in years, plus many new things that are very thought provoking as well. I'm really enjoying it, and making time to squeeze it in with all my other reading.
All kinds of baby news this week too...our neighbors Candy and Diana are both pregnant, Candy due in October, making Luis a big brother at last, and Diana at the end of August or first of September with their first child. And our friends Tom and Kathy back home got a great 25th wedding anniversary gift from their daughter: their first grandchild! Welcome to Abigale Mercedes! Melissa made it tough for her three brothers to top that gift!!
We also got our first mail in La Cruz this week! A package of CDs with Pastor Bill's sermon messages!! We are so thrilled to have them, thanks to the Bob and Sue for being so thoughtful!
We sprung a leak in the pipe that feeds water to the patio area and the washer and Jacobo called his handyman, Eloy, to come and fix it. In the process of that, Jacobo decided that he also wanted Eloy to harvest the coconuts from our palm and his as they were beginning to fall and were quite dangerous! Nothing like 2 pounds of coconut falling from 40 feet or so...makes a loud bang and ricochets all around the patio. It was quite the thing to see Eloy and Modesto harvesting the more than 50 coconuts from our tree alone. Even though Modesto was quite nimble, it made us both very nervous with him perched on a 20' extension ladder that was standing on a 4-inch wide stairwell wall. Precarious to say the least. But he managed just fine, whacking away at the bunches with a machete and lowering the coconut bunches to the ground by rope. They opened several of them and shared the meat and the juice, and left us some to share with our neighbors and with the Lumppios as well! Then they were off to Jacobo's to finish the harvest!
We discovered two new tiny critters in our neck of the woods, a baby iguana living in the coco palm, and a hummingbird sitting on a nest in one of the trees on the way into town. Plus the little lizard from our patio stopped long enough for me to get a photo. He's only about three inches long from head to the tip of his tail, and he comes out mostly in the evening and hangs out on the roof or wall of the patio. The little iguana, on the other hand is a morning guy, he's up bright and early running all around. He's our entertainment during desayuno (breakfast).
This week when the guys went to Santa Lucia, I was able to go along with them and it was WONDERFUL. It was my first visit to Santa Lucia, to any camp really, since my visit to Campo Ceuta way back in January. I loved every minute of it (well maybe not the hoard of biting mosquitoes!) . So many people to meet, and the demand for the Word of God is really astounding. Darwin had tapes that people had ordered, and a copy of the Jesus video that he'd promised to a family there. Many requests for New Testaments and Gospels of John, a few for Bibles. We split up and Darwin went one direction and we went another, which with our limited Spanish (in our view anyway) was a bit intimidating. But the people were great, and we had several nice chats with folks, and had a bunch of kids that followed us pretty much everywhere we went. One little girl, Yesica, about 10, learned to count to 20 in English after just a few minutes of practice with Ralph...and couldn't wait to tell her friends. She was so excited. What we were excited about is that some of these children, Yesica included, already know the Lord. And most of them in our little entourage could sing Solemente Cristo with us, as well as the Doxology, and could also recite the Lord's Prayer. We were suitably impressed!!
We met back up with Darwin and had a rather lengthy Bible study regarding the Trinity with what started out as two guys and ended up with eight guys. In the end, all but two were convinced by the Scriptures that we used that the Trinity is real and Biblical, and I think even the other two were pretty convinced as well, they just weren't quite ready to admit it. Can't wait to get back out there and visit more.
Lastly, our Personnel Director from WMPL, Chris, arrives on the field tomorrow, staying for a week. He'll be here in La Cruz on Wednesday and Thursday and then we'll be in to Mazatlan for team meeting again next Monday and will see him again before he takes off for home on Tuesday. He'll be visiting the churches and other work here in Sinaloa, and seeing where we all live and such. He's a great guy and we are looking forward to his visit. Please pray for travel mercies and good rest, as he'll be on the road a lot during his stay.
Thanks so much for your prayers and your support. Things to keep in prayer for us are continued language and culture learning, relationships with our fellow workers and neighbors, continued health and rest, Spanish language Bibles, Gospels of John, New Testaments, 90 (60 okay too) minute cassette tapes, new or used to record Gospel messages in various languages, a tape duplicating machine, Spanish language Gospel tracts, including some in cartoon/comic format for children and low level readers. Continued access to the camps, encouragement for Pastor Jose and his family and for Darwin and Mary Ann too. They are continuing all the work they've done in the past, and are now also mentoring us and the Lumppios! Thanks so much!
Love and prayers,
Ralph & Chris
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