at least a little. Temps are cooler, which is a blessing, and we’ve noticed a few cars with wet leaves stuck all over them. Most shops in town and the MZ are stuffed with back to school supplies. Seems like the kids just got out of school, and some already started back week before last and the rest are back this week. It’s kind of fun to see them all decked out in their various uniforms again and back to their old routines.
And after waiting for the rainy season to come I think we are officially in the middle of it. Depends on who you talk with though, some people say we’ll be done by mid-September, others say it will go through October. Have to wait and see.
Funny thing about the rain too, folks just completely hunker down here when the rains come. They are not out either walking or in their cars, there’s no sitting out in the evenings, so it makes it much more difficult to keep in touch with folks in the neighborhood. It was raining pretty hard yesterday morning and when 11 am rolled around the church was still locked up tight. We figured for sure there would be no services because of the rain, but about 20 minutes later the rain let up a bit and Jose came and opened the church and the three of us had services for about 40 minutes.
This is completely opposite of northwest behavior…goodness, if you hunkered down there to wait for the rain to stop you’d never go anywhere or get anything done for months on end. Goretex baby! It’s what keeps the NW going!
For the first time we actually got caught out in the weather. For newbies we’ve been managing pretty well, trying to get a handle on what is just blowing over, what’s just overcast and what will actually produce rain. But on a walk to town recently we found out we still have much to learn. Nice, cool, overcast day so we decided to walk to town. We had a great time, and were just finishing up our errands and visits when it started to sprinkle. We headed toward home, but the storm just kept getting worse and by the time we got to the house it was flat POURING down rain and we were soaked to the skin. Thankfully it was still warm out, not like at home in Washington where getting caught like that would make you bone-chillingly cold!
We are still waiting to receive our visas that were promised for August 3! They still have no word from immigration in Mexico City, so we wait, we call, we wait some more. Then Friday they called and said that we needed another letter from Pastor Lupe in Mazatlan stating what we do, where we do it and for how long. And of course, the letter needs to be hand delivered to their office in Mazatlan. We have 30 days to get this done. We are trying to see if Lupe can do the letters and deliver them for us rather than having to make another trip ourselves, but we are still waiting to hear from him. And this applies just to us at this point, not to Tom. Lidia thinks eventually they will ask this of Tom too, so she wants to be pro-active and have Lupe do a letter for him now too, just to save a hassle later. Can this be more of a drama or what? Ralph said the other night that the next time he goes to immigration in Mazatlan he’ll either come away with the visas or an exit letters so we can leave! He’s really sick of messing with this. I think we all are. Please keep this in prayer.
We met with the Lumppios the other day to strategize a bit for the restart of the work in the camps. People will start returning in September and we want to work together more rather than completely separately, even in separate camps. We want to see where God is working in these places already and come along side that work. The longer we are here the more we learn about which camps have church services and which don’t and which have a missionary presence and which don’t. The guys are out this morning doing an informal kind of survey trying to get a better handle on things. Should be interesting to hear what all they find out.
We are already looking forward to our first field conference, which will be coming up right after the first of the year. It will be an opportunity to review the work here, report on our experiences, and look to the future. We are currently praying about that meeting, what shape it will take and when to hold it. Please join us in prayer on that.
This week we’ve learned that Ralph’s 93 year old Aunt Mickey in North Dakota took a tumble and broke her hip. She had surgery to repair it and is doing well by all accounts. She’s been living in an assisted living place since a similar fall a few years back. Please pray for complete healing for the break!
Additionally, my cousin Donna will have colon surgery on Thursday in Olympia, so please keep her, her family and the medical team in prayer. Those of you who were at our sending from church have met her…she’s a totally amazing woman and a great photographer! She took the photos that are on our prayer cards and our mug shot for the blog page. She’s also a newly minted great-grandmother to Elleah!
Thanks so much for all your prayers and support…we love and appreciate all you do for us.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Friends and family update
So much is going on with our friends and family, including a lot of pictures so we thought we’d share some!
Aaron, Angie and new daughter Aly!
The Ekkas settling into their new home
Ethan’s 5th birthday!
Abby’s baptism!
Jonny and Marina in China
Rod and Sharon’s wedding:
Greg and the kids
Kiesha and Elleah
Amy and Daniel on the night they were engaged
Aaron, Angie and new daughter Aly!
The Ekkas settling into their new home
Ethan’s 5th birthday!
Abby’s baptism!
Jonny and Marina in China
Rod and Sharon’s wedding:
Greg and the kids
Kiesha and Elleah
Amy and Daniel on the night they were engaged
Sunday, August 20, 2006
It’s the little things…
that can get us down, such as:
We are pretty much up to our eyebrows in laundry these days because the onset of the rainy season has made it more of a challenge to get it done. The washer is on the low spot on the patio, and even though it is up on three-inch high bricks it still is surrounded by water most of the time, so you are standing in a puddle every time you use it.
Then just getting the clothes up on the line and dry is a challenge between storms. It took four days last week to get everything from one load dry because of the rains and humidity!! But I’ve followed the leader of my neighbors and I now hang shirts and t-shirts on hangers as they come out of the washer. Then I hang them on the line that way. Much easier to grab and run indoors with them when the showers come, and they are already on hangers so they can go right on the curtain rods in the shower and the kitchen to continue drying.
Then our water has been off again a lot lately, complicating laundry, bathing, cleaning in general. Tough to do with the water off. Japame says its temporary…it always is, but we are on day two of our latest outage, just not fun. And it’s all of town this time, not just our end, so we can’t sneak over to the Lumppios for a shower because they have no water either!
The latest storms have been doozies. The worst thunder and lightning I can recall. And for hours on end…the last storm parked itself over us from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. and boomed and flashed the whole time. Of course, we lost power, so no air or fan, but the rain cooled it down enough to be tolerable with the windows open. But with the huge rain came a new channel in our road out front, moving closer to the house…we hope that trend doesn’t continue. And the wind driven rain made it’s way into the kitchen through the window and door frame and so we had minor flooding. Thankfully, the floor isn’t at all level, so it was contained to the “L” that forms the outside wall and the wall between the kitchen and the guest bedroom. Plus the guest room wall got wet again, same place, smaller wet spot!
We’ve both been bitten a ton from the onslaught of mosquitoes, flys and Lord knows what else…I bet I’ve got 30 bites on my legs alone, Ralph’s got more. We have just become food for these critters. We use bug spray in the house and apply “Off” and that does help, but it must be the rains that have encouraged them as we haven’t ever had this many critters about.
We even had a ant invasion. Got up one morning and noticed this gritty gray circle near the front door. On closer inspection it was full of tiny little ants…and the gray grit was the remains of the tile grout they had excavated in order to get inside the house. So I got my trusty bug spray and administered a good dose on the circle and the area where they came in. Instantly I had a huge outpouring of much larger ants and flying ants from inside the wall…hundreds and hundreds of them!! I kept applying the spray until they stopped coming out. Yuck! Had one more episode with them a few days later, but none since.
Then we had our first scorpion! It was a small black one only about an inch or so long, and outside, not in the house.
But even with all this we had one really cool critter made a temporary home with us…a big beautiful butterfly. Her wingspan was nearly as large as my entire hand, she was dark brown and spotted. She came inside and stayed all day…out of the 100-degree heat I’d guess. Night fell, she didn’t go out again, so we shut the house down and put on the air. Then came the big storm. She didn’t like the storm and fluttered about the house like a crazed mini-bat, wearing herself out. When we opened the windows we tried to encourage her to go out, but she was too freaked out. She finally made her way out the next morning.
But, even though all of this stuff can bug us and get us down, we also know how completely blessed we are to have a God who loves us and cares for us, and family and friends who do likewise. Thanks for keeping us in your prayers…those prayers keep us going from day to day and we are blessed to have so many of you helping us via prayer! Praise the Lord.
We are pretty much up to our eyebrows in laundry these days because the onset of the rainy season has made it more of a challenge to get it done. The washer is on the low spot on the patio, and even though it is up on three-inch high bricks it still is surrounded by water most of the time, so you are standing in a puddle every time you use it.
Then just getting the clothes up on the line and dry is a challenge between storms. It took four days last week to get everything from one load dry because of the rains and humidity!! But I’ve followed the leader of my neighbors and I now hang shirts and t-shirts on hangers as they come out of the washer. Then I hang them on the line that way. Much easier to grab and run indoors with them when the showers come, and they are already on hangers so they can go right on the curtain rods in the shower and the kitchen to continue drying.
Then our water has been off again a lot lately, complicating laundry, bathing, cleaning in general. Tough to do with the water off. Japame says its temporary…it always is, but we are on day two of our latest outage, just not fun. And it’s all of town this time, not just our end, so we can’t sneak over to the Lumppios for a shower because they have no water either!
The latest storms have been doozies. The worst thunder and lightning I can recall. And for hours on end…the last storm parked itself over us from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. and boomed and flashed the whole time. Of course, we lost power, so no air or fan, but the rain cooled it down enough to be tolerable with the windows open. But with the huge rain came a new channel in our road out front, moving closer to the house…we hope that trend doesn’t continue. And the wind driven rain made it’s way into the kitchen through the window and door frame and so we had minor flooding. Thankfully, the floor isn’t at all level, so it was contained to the “L” that forms the outside wall and the wall between the kitchen and the guest bedroom. Plus the guest room wall got wet again, same place, smaller wet spot!
We’ve both been bitten a ton from the onslaught of mosquitoes, flys and Lord knows what else…I bet I’ve got 30 bites on my legs alone, Ralph’s got more. We have just become food for these critters. We use bug spray in the house and apply “Off” and that does help, but it must be the rains that have encouraged them as we haven’t ever had this many critters about.
We even had a ant invasion. Got up one morning and noticed this gritty gray circle near the front door. On closer inspection it was full of tiny little ants…and the gray grit was the remains of the tile grout they had excavated in order to get inside the house. So I got my trusty bug spray and administered a good dose on the circle and the area where they came in. Instantly I had a huge outpouring of much larger ants and flying ants from inside the wall…hundreds and hundreds of them!! I kept applying the spray until they stopped coming out. Yuck! Had one more episode with them a few days later, but none since.
Then we had our first scorpion! It was a small black one only about an inch or so long, and outside, not in the house.
But even with all this we had one really cool critter made a temporary home with us…a big beautiful butterfly. Her wingspan was nearly as large as my entire hand, she was dark brown and spotted. She came inside and stayed all day…out of the 100-degree heat I’d guess. Night fell, she didn’t go out again, so we shut the house down and put on the air. Then came the big storm. She didn’t like the storm and fluttered about the house like a crazed mini-bat, wearing herself out. When we opened the windows we tried to encourage her to go out, but she was too freaked out. She finally made her way out the next morning.
But, even though all of this stuff can bug us and get us down, we also know how completely blessed we are to have a God who loves us and cares for us, and family and friends who do likewise. Thanks for keeping us in your prayers…those prayers keep us going from day to day and we are blessed to have so many of you helping us via prayer! Praise the Lord.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Various technical difficulties!!
These recent blog entries are going up with the date they were written noted because the date they were published is different. Several of you have written noticing that the blog site has been down a lot of late. WMPL has been hit with viruses that take the site down. It does come up and then go back down, and as of today, they think they have it resolved. It's been the whole WMPL site, not just the blogs! Wouldn't hurt to keep it in prayer as it could be a means of attack by the enemy against WMPL.
Door to door sales
Lots of things are sold door to door here: newspapers, cosmetics, fruit, veggies, fish, pottery, wind chimes, ice cream cones and mattresses all come to mind. Yes, mattresses. This floors me every time the guys come around. I just don't think of mattresses as an impulse purchase! Oh yeah, I've been meaning to get a new mattress. Thanks so much for stopping by! I mean, who buys these? We have loads of furniture stores in town that will sell you a mattress and deliver it to your house, most of them are open seven days a week and delivery is free and same day normally, so it's not that mattresses are difficult to come by. One of those things I'll probably never understand. But someone must be buying, they are paying for three guys and a truck to roam around town and that's not free. Just an oddity from my point of view.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Romans 8:28
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
Earlier this week as we were leaving for Mazatlan the gate of our cochera swung shut in the wind and hit the passenger side mirror breaking the glass…bummer. But we thought, okay we are going to Mazatlan anyway, we'll just get it fixed there. We couldn't find anyone who had just the mirror, which was all that was broken, the mechanics of the mirror were fine. One place did have the whole mirror, case, wire harness, etc., but it was $600 pesos, plus we'd have to find someone to install it at additional cost. Bit over budget this month. So we did our errands and came home with the mirror mostly gone. We've been praying about what to do about it and yesterday God led us to one of the three glass shops in town. The guys there were happy to replace just the mirror for us while we waited and for only $30 pesos…woohoo! And we discovered it is a Christian owned business, and all of the guys (Juan, Augustine and Hector) there go to a small church over near the MZ. They invited us to come and worship with them and are interested in maybe working together in the camps. What a tremendous blessing!! Pray with us as we explore this new relationship.
Earlier this week as we were leaving for Mazatlan the gate of our cochera swung shut in the wind and hit the passenger side mirror breaking the glass…bummer. But we thought, okay we are going to Mazatlan anyway, we'll just get it fixed there. We couldn't find anyone who had just the mirror, which was all that was broken, the mechanics of the mirror were fine. One place did have the whole mirror, case, wire harness, etc., but it was $600 pesos, plus we'd have to find someone to install it at additional cost. Bit over budget this month. So we did our errands and came home with the mirror mostly gone. We've been praying about what to do about it and yesterday God led us to one of the three glass shops in town. The guys there were happy to replace just the mirror for us while we waited and for only $30 pesos…woohoo! And we discovered it is a Christian owned business, and all of the guys (Juan, Augustine and Hector) there go to a small church over near the MZ. They invited us to come and worship with them and are interested in maybe working together in the camps. What a tremendous blessing!! Pray with us as we explore this new relationship.
Wednesday, August 9, 2006
Neighborhood stuff
Our upstairs neighbors, Luis and Diana moved away. They are a really cute young couple pregnant with their first child, a little girl. The apartment above us is really small, and I must admit I wondered how they would manage with the new addition to the family. But they had a plan in hand!! There was space with Luis' family on their ranchero about 40 minutes from here so they made their move. The baby is due in about six weeks, so Diana will still need to come to La Cruz for checkups and for the birth of the baby. She promised to let me know when their daughter was born. So, now we have a "casa se renta" above us. Please pray with us for a great person or couple to move in there.
Speaking of babies: Our other neighbors Luis, Candy and Luis pequeno just returned from three weeks vacation visiting Luis' folks in Sonora and during that time they found out their second child, due October 14, is a girl! They are thrilled. They have an apartment about our size, so they should manage fine. Their biggest problem is their only mode of transportation is Luis' motorcycle that he uses for deliveries for work at Rin Rin Pizza. It's fine transportation for three people, not so good for four. They are thinking there is finally a car in their future. Pray for something cheap, safe and reliable for them please.
One of the other neighborhood couples are Theo and Lupita. They live next door to the church and in the evenings they run a little food stand in front of their house. Once in a while we'll head over there to get a snack in the evening and visit a bit. Additionally, Lupita works during the day at Comida Mary's…one of our favorite places to eat in La Cruz. Theo is a painter.
When we were over visiting the other night Theo announced that he has landed a job as a painter in the states and will leave for a year beginning in December. He'll be working in the LA area painting all kinds of new construction houses. And he's waiting on his visa…and waiting, and waiting. He had to go to the US consulate in Hermosillo, quite a ways north of us to apply and pay. He had to pay a lot, just like us, and do a ton of paperwork just like us, and now he's waiting, just like us. Seems the visa thing is universal. Hurry up and wait.
Speaking of babies: Our other neighbors Luis, Candy and Luis pequeno just returned from three weeks vacation visiting Luis' folks in Sonora and during that time they found out their second child, due October 14, is a girl! They are thrilled. They have an apartment about our size, so they should manage fine. Their biggest problem is their only mode of transportation is Luis' motorcycle that he uses for deliveries for work at Rin Rin Pizza. It's fine transportation for three people, not so good for four. They are thinking there is finally a car in their future. Pray for something cheap, safe and reliable for them please.
One of the other neighborhood couples are Theo and Lupita. They live next door to the church and in the evenings they run a little food stand in front of their house. Once in a while we'll head over there to get a snack in the evening and visit a bit. Additionally, Lupita works during the day at Comida Mary's…one of our favorite places to eat in La Cruz. Theo is a painter.
When we were over visiting the other night Theo announced that he has landed a job as a painter in the states and will leave for a year beginning in December. He'll be working in the LA area painting all kinds of new construction houses. And he's waiting on his visa…and waiting, and waiting. He had to go to the US consulate in Hermosillo, quite a ways north of us to apply and pay. He had to pay a lot, just like us, and do a ton of paperwork just like us, and now he's waiting, just like us. Seems the visa thing is universal. Hurry up and wait.
Friday, August 4, 2006
A little minor surgery
Most of you who know us know that the sun in not our friend…we both come from Scandinavian backgrounds and are fair and freckled. Ralph has way more trouble with this than I ever do and before we came to Mexico he had a lesion on his scalp that our doc in Washington froze off, twice no less. But the thing has come back again so a visit to the doc here was in order. He took one look and wondered aloud why on earth the doc in the US didn't cut it off to begin with, and he proceeded to give Ralph a bit of a funny haircut and then cut the lesion out and stitched him up and sent him home. He'll get the stitches out next Thursday, and while the doc doesn't really think its cancer he sent it for biopsy to be sure. Those results will be back in two or three weeks.
Dr. Maldonado is an interesting guy. Born and raised here in La Cruz, finished school here and went off to university to become a doctor. Upon graduation he had offers to work elsewhere, including a big hospital, but in the end he decided to come back to La Cruz and help his people. He has a great practice. No insurance forms to fill out, no three weeks waiting for an appointment to see him. No appointments at all actually, just come on in. He does his own triage as to who gets seen first, first come first served if there's nothing serious. Efficient office too, two exam rooms, waiting room, bathroom and his small office. He has one woman to help him out. No nonsense cut to the chase kind of guy. Funny too. Works 9 hour days, six days a week. Office visit, surgery, biopsy, three kinds of medicine and another office visit for stitch removal. $2,000 pesos!! Less than $200 US. You won't find that in the US.
Dr. Maldonado is an interesting guy. Born and raised here in La Cruz, finished school here and went off to university to become a doctor. Upon graduation he had offers to work elsewhere, including a big hospital, but in the end he decided to come back to La Cruz and help his people. He has a great practice. No insurance forms to fill out, no three weeks waiting for an appointment to see him. No appointments at all actually, just come on in. He does his own triage as to who gets seen first, first come first served if there's nothing serious. Efficient office too, two exam rooms, waiting room, bathroom and his small office. He has one woman to help him out. No nonsense cut to the chase kind of guy. Funny too. Works 9 hour days, six days a week. Office visit, surgery, biopsy, three kinds of medicine and another office visit for stitch removal. $2,000 pesos!! Less than $200 US. You won't find that in the US.
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Visas…who needs 'em
We do, but the saga continues. We were supposed to get them this Thursday, but they called us and said they didn't have them yet. We were thankful they called, it was a very nice courtesy that they didn't have to do. They weren't sure when we might get them, though, and said we should just check back occasionally. We will and will let you know when we finally have these rascals in hand.
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