Those of you who saw us while we were home know that I was in various stages of sick the whole time we were there, even seeing a US doc and getting a shot and some antibiotics didn't seem to fix me totally. And since we've been home I'm still struggling with stuffiness and fluid in my ears and that lovely morning cough! This even after a nebulizer treatment and a cocktail of five different drugs given by the doctor here to knock out whatever seems to be ailing me. I must admit though, I'm finally feeling better. FINALLY! But I'm not a good sick person, never have been. I hate it, I want to just be left alone, don't relish visitors, plus I get bored easily while I'm trying to "rest" as prescribed. Maybe I'm just not a good "rester", who knows. But at any rate, I'm getting better, have more energy and feel like I've turned the corner on two months of various sickies. Thanks so much for your prayers.
Have to comment a bit about Christmas in La Cruz, even though we missed it. There was a rather large Christmas tree in the municipal plaza, beautifully lit! (Later, in the daylight, we discovered it was a huge ad for Coca Cola, complete with their polar bears and their red bottle tops as ornaments.) Many of the houses had fresh coats of paint, which Lidia says is a custom around here and most houses have some sort of decorations. Lots of lights on houses, garlands around front doors, swamp coolers decorated as Christmas packages, plastic Santas, decorations on the municipal building and lots of Nativities! We even have Christmas lights strung across city streets! Remember when they used to do that in your town? Maybe they still do. It really brought back memories for me.
We were blessed to be invited to our little neighbor Luis' 6th birthday party last week and were delighted to attend. He's such a sweet kid! They had the party in their little apartment, three rooms! And he was joined by his seven little cousins and a friend or two plus mom, (dad had to work), grandma, two aunties and and uncle plus us! Pretty good crowd for that little place. They served pizza, cake and jello and handed out candy treats to all the guests. We had a good time visiting but with all the kids it got rowdy pretty quickly, I was thankful that the Professor and Rosie, the downstairs neighbors, were still on vacation. Of course, if they'd been here they would have been invited and it still wouldn't have been a problem!
A friend sent us home with some school supplies for the orphanage in Mazatlan and we took a day to drop those off. We met with Ophelia and got the full tour of the facility. Modest, but very nice and clean and comfy. They have 42 children there from tiny ones to teens. She was very happy to have the supplies! Thanks Erv and Sue!
We then took off to go visit with Tootie and Alton who winter in Mazatlan each year. We went to lunch at a new place (to us anyway) and it was great food and very reasonable prices. Walking distance from their apartment too. After lunch we walked back to their place and spent the afternoon catching up. She also served us an afternoon treat of coffee and tea and Rosca de los Reyes! King's cake. Didn't realize it was an Epiphany tradition in Mexico but it certainly is. We really enjoyed this sweet pastry, and neither of us got the baby in our slice so we won't be hosting any parties in the near future.
Thanks also for your prayers for Erv and his recovery from his stroke on December 5th! He's been released to home from rehab and it looks like he's making such great progress that he'll be able to return to work in February! Praise the Lord!
Our team from Minnesota Valley Free Lutheran that visited this past summer has gifted our field with an AWESOME portable sound system. It's an amazing yet portable piece of equipment that will be useful in many ways for us! Thanks so much guys!! Thanks also to Scott and Javier from Vision of Glory Lutheran Church who graciously included it as part of their luggage when they visited this month! We are so blessed by your kindness and generosity! We thank God for you.
As we've been out and about in La Cruz we've noticed there are at least five new little restaurants here, a new meat market, a new pharmacy...a regular boom of new businesses. The area around the MZ (the big grocery) has become a hub of activity too. They built a new Coppel (department store) next door this past summer and now there is a little strip mall of sorts nearly finished up there too with room for about a dozen small shops. Plus there's a new commercial building of some sort on the property a block away that has no signs yet, so we have no idea what that will be. We've gone from a two cash machine town to a four cash machine town. There are rumors that a theater will be built soon.
And the big news, at least to all of our neighbors, is that La Cruz is finally getting cable television! There is much rejoicing over this! Up to now you could use an antenna and try to grab a scratchy signal from either Culiacan or Mazatlan or you could subscribe to satellite. Satellite tends to be too expensive for the average family here, and the cable promises to be much more economical! We've seen the guys out laying the cable, but haven't seen any solicitations yet, but everyone is excited anyway...soon they will have cable! The little joys of life!
Please continue to pray for Jose and his family and for the church here in La Cruz. For many months now church has consisted of just us and Jose and perhaps Adolfo on occasion. Sometimes Jose's wife and daughter join us, but more and more in recent months they have not. Jose just celebrated his 65th birthday, but he just seems unhappy and not interested in "doing church". We've asked him if it's time to close it and he says no, never. Rumor has it they didn't even have church while we were gone, which kind of confirms our suspicion that they are only having church because we are here.
Also please pray for a scheduled workers meeting in Ceuta on January 20. Hopefully all of the brothers will come! Jose (La Cruz) , Juan (El Castillo), Ismael (Ceuta), Lupe (Mazatlan) and a representative from the little church in El Rosario. The purpose is for them to get together and fellowship, and perhaps chart a future course of the churches in Sinaloa. Perhaps the beginning of an alliance of the churches in this state. The WMPL personnel director is coming down to participate.
After much prayer, reflection and advice from people we know, love and trust, we have come home to La Cruz with a new attitude. Instead of constantly worrying about what we should be doing, might be doing, could be doing, we are being quiet and listening for what God has to say. It's taken a lot of the stress off of us. We would always dive in and react immediately to everything, and we've stopped doing that. We've stopped struggling, stopped trying to guess at what God's doing and what our part ought to be, we are now waiting for him to tell us. What a concept!
Thanks so much for your continued prayer and financial support...it makes all the difference in the world to us. Bless you all.
