We've been frustrated in our attempts to make an appointment with the oncologist for Ralph too...every time we call, no matter what time of day we got this brief little message saying we'd reached the doctors office and thanks. Huh? Nothing about leaving a message to call back, nothing about being out of the office. Couldn't figure it out. So today we talked with Lidia about it and it's one of those cultural learning opportunities. They do not answer the phone at the clinic. People know they need to leave their name and number and they will get a call back. Okey-dokey then...Ralph just did that! So now we are waiting for a call back. We may get this all figured out or we may not...so much to learn all the time. Please pray for a quick call back and clear communications for the visit.
And speaking of learning, I think that both Ralph and Tom have now passed me by in Spanish learning. I have been feeling so stuck lately and they both seem to be moving forward. I've been asking for the gift of Spanish language for about a year now, and have made some small progress, but still have such a long way to go...and I get frustrated. When I paid the phone bill at Letty's this morning the guy couldn't understand me when I said my phone number and I had to write it out for him!!! That's bad! There was a guy named Manual standing next to me and he said he understood me, be he wasn't the one taking the money! He encouraged me to hang in there and not be discouraged, that the language would come in time...please keep our language acquisition in your prayers.
We've had another change in the weather too after a couple of weeks of ever decreasing temps, from hovering around 100 to blissfully down to the 80 and low 90s!! It was a wonderful break. But now we are now back up into the high 90s for this entire week. We've had no rain at all for about five days, so it makes us wonder: What happened to the rainy season? Ralph said yesterday this is the first time in his life he's been looking forward to having summer end!
You know that when we have big storms we have several power outages each night caused by the storms. One night last week our power went out every hour on the hour between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. It would come on anywhere between five and 20 minutes before the top of the hour and then would go out again!! Weird thing was we were not having a storm...the sky was perfectly clear and the moon was shining brightly...still, multiple power outages! No one has a clue about what might have caused it.
The whole town is gearing up for Independence day celebrations coming this weekend...Saturday is Independence Day in Mexico. We already have decorations up in most of the businesses and in both major squares and on the municipal building. We have at least three street vendors selling flags, drums and little ornaments from push carts. Looks like the celebrations here will be a very big deal for sure. Can't wait to see how things go.
Friday we were blessed with a "care" package from my co-workers in Washington! What a treasure it is too...chock full of all kinds of goodies!! All things we can't get here!! Straight cheese crunchy cheetos, Skittles, chocolate chips and baking chocolate, craisins, salty nut and sweet granola bars (my fav!) Motor Trend and Car and Driver mags for Ralph and paperback novels for both of us!! Plus a huge jar of extra crunchy peanut butter, which we can get here, but we have to vigilant and it comes in tiny little jars! Goodness, what a blessing it was to get all that stuff. We are thoroughly enjoying everything and are truly thankful. Thanks a bunch guys!
Thankfully, today was our day to worship together and break bread (tortillas, actually) with the Lumppios!! Thank the Lord. We had a nice time of worship together, Tom led a great study and we had communion. Then we had a nice meal that Lidia prepared. I brought dessert...international magic cookie bars: Minnesota graham crackers, Washington chocolate chips and the rest was local ingredients! It made for a really nice time. It helped me lose my crankies and when we got home our water came on within minutes. Praise the LORD!
My friend Dana sent me this little movie and it's something that Pastor Andrea taught on in July of last year. She called it "A divine appointment". Both messages encourage you to make the most of your "dash". The afternoon Pastor Andrea preached this message, one of our church family who was always making the most of her dash, tragically died in a motorcycle accident. This is a great little movie, very beautiful. Thanks Dana for reminding me to make my dash count for something...
http://www.thedashmovie.com
Love and blessings,
Ralph & Chris
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