Let’s see now…

314 days, 940 photographs, five tropical weather systems, two visas, loads of miles, zillions of bug bites and hundreds of people we’ve met. That’s Mexico in a nutshell so far.

But it’s so much more. We’ve loved some of it and flat hated some of it. We’ve been happy and we’ve been depressed. We’ve been physically sick more than we’ve ever been in our entire lives, and we’re not spring chickens!

We’ve learned language, we’ve learned culture. We have much more to learn. We’ve learned a ton about ourselves, our fellow workers, our community and our God. Amazing that as long as we have known Him we are still learning things about Him. Amazing doesn’t go far enough in describing life with Him.

Tying up loose ends before vacation is always interesting, particularly when you are going to another country for a month! We needed to pay two months of telephone, internet and satellite and happily the light bill just came too so we can take care of that! You can’t just drop a check in the mail here…never that simple. Most things have to be paid in cash, in person. And since we are paying this months rent a few days early our sweet landlord, Jacobo, is allowing us to pay a couple of days late next month, so we can wait until we get back, rather than paying two months now! We had our mail from the states cut off temporarily, so hopefully we won’t get too much in our mailbox while we are gone.

Our calendar is filling up with all the things that we’ll be doing at home: Thanksgiving, two weddings, some birthdays, Christmas and loads of dinners and lunches with friends, former co-workers and family. Worshiping in our home church. Getting our prescriptions for the next year. Doing a little shopping for us and for the Lumppios…we always have a U.S. wish list at the ready!! In fact, we’ve already ordered some things and had them shipped to the kids’ house!

We are trying to take very little with us, as we have a lot to bring back. But in our packing we’ve been unearthing all the winter things that we never use here. Our heavy coats and gloves. My wool hat. Socks. Sweatshirts. Long jeans (well, we do wear those here occasionally, but not often!). Tennis shoes. No more shorts, t-shirts and sandals for a while. We are going to the land of wet, cold and gloomy weather…but lots of sunny relationships to brighten our days.

These last few weeks before vacation have been interesting. We got pulled over for going the wrong way down a one way street in town. We were beeped by a cop in a car and then waved over by one of the street corner cops. Thankfully, the cop who pulled us over is one of the Christian brothers we’ve met along the way here and we are friendly with all the street cops. This particular street cop was one who ended up with a balloon critter when we had the team here in June. And when Oscar got out of the car and saw it was us he just said “it can be confusing here brother”! Case in point: only two blocks of the street we were on are one way, the rest is two way, and the corner we were stopped on had a stop sign for us, even though traffic is only supposed to go the other way!! Thankfully they both just blessed us and sent us on our way. Yes, it can be confusing here and we aren’t talking just about traffic!

We’ve been out to Campo San Juan two more times and actually made it past the guard barricade the second time, only to find out that Benny was gone for at least a week and to come back “mas tarde”. Mas tarde is getting to be like manana. Always mas tarde or manana. Never anything too specific, even when pressed. We are praying about what this all means in the scheme of our work here…if we can’t get in to see Benny, then we can’t get into Campo San Juan or Campo Santa Lucia. Then what?

On the way to one of our visits out there we ran into another Christian brother who’s truck was broken down. We looped around and went back to see if we could help. He couldn’t get the truck started and needed a push. We parked, Ralph got out to push, laid his hands on the vehicle to give it a shove and it started! The brother was so thrilled…a healing! We stood by the roadside and prayed together, then each went on our way. This brother has a church about 7 miles north of here and has services twice a week there. Plus he has a service at Campo Tayoltita and at Campo Santa Lucia once each week as well. It always does our heart good to see the Mexican church take an interest in the camps. Many don’t even acknowledge that they exist, let alone visit.

Had a thoroughly wonderful 45 minute chat via skype with Dave McMullen a great Christian brother from Arizona who has been coming to northwestern Mexico for more than 30 years, working in the camps spreading the Gospel message via the Jesus video and Gospel Recordings tapes and CDs. What an amazing faithful man! He and his lovely wife will be coming through our area in February sometime, and will be stopping in to meet us. We are really looking forward to it. What an inspiration these folks are!!

Our water system is still struggling along more than two month after Hurricane Lane sent it into a tizzy. Water only from 10 pm to 5 am. Nothing like doing the laundry in the dark!! Therefore, we were pretty thrilled to have water all day and most of the evening for the last week and a half, but then today…nada!! This is a town-wide problem affecting the whole system, although some areas are doing better lately than others, it’s obviously still not fixed. Please pray that this would be resolved soon as it makes everyone in town nuts.

I decided I was long overdue for a haircut, so I wandered over to Judith’s across the street and got my cut. Her mom and auntie were there, and of course her little daughter Ivana, so I got a haircut and a nice long visit in the bargain. When I was finally ready to head on home I twisted my ankle on a big stone in the road. Thankfully it is not a severe sprain. I hobbled around a bit for a couple of days and it is much better now. I still can “tweak” it once in a while and then I hobble for a while, but all in all it could have been much worse.

We were blessed by a visit by one of my former bosses, who also happens to be a friend and former neighbor to boot. Marie arrive last Monday on a cruise ship in Mazatlan and she and her friends spent the day with us sightseeing, visiting, shopping and, of course, eating. We had such a blast. It was wonderful to see her and catch up with her and to meet her traveling companions. We have worried a bit after they left us as Hurricane Sergio formed off the coast in the areas they were sailing. Hope all is well with them.

We’ve been blessed with the use of a car while we are home. Greg’s in-laws have offered up their truck. Praise the Lord. And we’ve been blessed by a work fund donation that will give us a little extra cash as we head out on vacation. We’ll be staying with the kids, and the grandkids won’t be going to the sitter the first week we are there just so we can have the extra time with them. Video is good, but there’s nothing like live and in person when you are talking grand babies! What a blessing. God is good.

As we prepare for a month away we ask that you would pray for completely uneventful travel for us. No flight delays (weather, mechanical or anything else) and a green light at customs going and coming. That all of our luggage would arrive with us. For good rest and good visits with family and friends. That our home and vehicle here would be safe and sound for our return. That we have ample time for reflection on our first year in Mexico and for God’s clear direction for this coming year.

We can’t thank you all enough for all of your prayers, cards, letters, e-mails and financial support. We are so appreciative of all you do for us. We thank God for you all.

Day of the Dead

We knew this was coming up, had read about it, heard about it. The stores in town were filling up with flowers and bread of the dead. We’ve seen Day of the Dead arts and crafts both here and in Arizona, and the little skull candies, etc. but never experienced it ourselves before. This was our year.

For weeks the shops in town were gearing up. Never have I seen so many flowers in so many shops!! You could buy ready made floral coronas and crosses, or you could buy the floral foam and artificial flowers and make your own. The coronas included a picture of either Jesus or Our Lady of Guadalupe, or you could provide a picture of your departed loved one for the center.

There were altars set up in some stores, even in the WalMart and cathedral plaza in Mazatlan and in the our plaza here in La Cruz. The one in La Cruz was dedicated to Christopher Columbus and the one at Walmart had flowers, candy, food and bottles of liquor and it was stacked high with containers of pan de muerte, bread of the dead…

On the actual day, which is a national holiday, the road to the cemetery was completely blocked off. It was lined up and down with food vendors of every kind. The streets and vacant lots around the cemetery were teaming with cars and people.

Walking through the cemetery I was stuck by how the grave sites had been cleaned up and in some cases even painted. There were flowers everywhere, balloons on the graves of children, lots of candles and lots and lots of people eating a wide variety of food and drinking everything from sodas to beer to booze. Friends and families had their lawn chairs neatly arranged around the graves, they had shade structures up to protect them from the sun. Boom boxes were blasting favorite tunes. One large family grave area had a big tent with a banda band. There were balloon and ice cream vendors wandering through the graves. I avoided taking pictures of family celebrations, focusing on the quieter areas of the cemetery. Interesting and beautiful.