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.