Life and times

Wow, time has been flying by, more than three months in Mexico and we marvel at all that has happened and all that we have learned.

We have finally assembled all the materials we need to apply for our FM1 visas and hope to begin that process within the next couple of weeks. Darwin really wants Tom and Ralph to handle the whole application process, and I'm not sure either one of them is looking forward to going downtown Mazatlan and dealing with government officials all day, plus loads of paperwork. There's a list of 11 things that need to be filled out, photocopied and/or paid for, plus we'll need 12 photos!! Goodness. They don't make it easy, and this process needs to be repeated each year. Some people have said that the process itself can take up to a year, so you finish just in time to begin again! Too exciting. Please pray that the process goes smoothly!!

This week brought a noticeable change in the weather as well, it's definitely getting warmer!! We are now brushing up against 90 most days, but it is quite tolerable. They say as the rainy season approaches we'll look back on these balmy days and wish we could go back to them. It will be interesting to see how rainy the rainy season actually ends up. There has been a drought here for some time with much less rain than normal. We'll see if that pattern continues or if the weather returns to it's normal, much wetter pattern. As native northwesterners we are used to tons of rain, and should be able to tolerate warm rain for two or three months, as opposed cold rain for six!!

Pastor Jose stopped by with a new taste treat for us this week, he brought us hot fresh tamales maiz de Elota! What an amazing treat! They are tamales that can only be described as sweet cream corn in tamale maza. My, were they ever good and he brought enough that we had them for cena two nights in a row! When I saw Gloria at church today I thanked her for them and she told me that they also could make tacos with that same sweet taste. Lots to learn about food here, but also lots of time to learn, thankfully.

When Darwin, Mary Ann and Gracie were up this week we decided to go out to the town of El Salto and check out the church building there. The town itself is a pretty little village, complete with schools, homes, sports fields and a little Catholic chapel and our small church. The church is situated on a nice property with an absolutely HUGE tree providing tons of shade. That's Mary Ann, Gracie and me standing in front of the tree, Ralph taking the picture trying to get us and the tree all in. Impossible!! The church itself is a great building, built many years ago by volunteers from the US. There is no pastor there now, and no congregation meeting there either. Please pray that the Lord would raise up a Mexican leader for that church.







It's funny because we've been out that way before, but didn't know exactly where the town was, we were so very close, but drove right by it!! The town was moved from it's old location just a few miles down the road in 1986 to make way for the lake, El Salto, which I now know means The Jump! They dammed the Rio Elota to form the lake, then stocked it with bass and it's become one of the premier bass fishing lakes in the world. $1,595 USD for 4 days/3 nights at the lodge there!! Big bucks, considering that doesn't count your gear or your flight to Mazatlan!

We got the first of the tracts we ordered this week, and though we had to pay duty to get them from the PO, it was reasonable!! Ralph was able to use them for the first time when he and Darwin visited Campo Santa Lucia this week. The guys were hassled by the new crop of guards, and saying the magic word "Imelda" (the head lady) just started a bunch of phone calls to Campo San Juan. Darwin fixed the problem by handing over a couple of his copies of the Jesus video, and with that they were on their way. Please pray that the camps stay open for us to go and talk with people about the Lord.

Also, some of you are wondering why there are no photos of the camps on the blog. It's because cameras are not allowed. The big farm companies have taken some heat from photos that have been published by others and therefore no longer allow cameras in.

Our medicine order is five weeks out and no sign of it, so we contacted the pharmacy. They feel we should have had it by now and also think that it's likely lost so they have reshipped it. Hopefully we should have it in about three weeks. But that means that we'll have to be on the hunt for a months worth of meds when we go into Mazatlan tomorrow. Please pray for the safe arrival of the meds we've ordered (and low or no duty!!) and that we can get the month worth of meds we need tomorrow. I never would have dreamed that this would be a hassle for us!!

One of the people that we practice our Spanish with, Beatrice, surprised us with a visit to the house this past week, a first! Sadly she came by to tell us that the restaurant she had been working for was locked up and when she inquired she learned that the owners had not paid for some things and that until they did the business would remain closed. So that left Beatrice, a single mom with six kids, out of a job. Amazingly, she was as upbeat as ever, completely confident that she'll land something else soon, and we did see her downtown applying for jobs later in the week, still hopeful she'd find something. Please pray for her and her family.

When we were out exploring some of the back roads south of town the other day we ran across this hilltop shrine, Maria Guadalupe del Cerrito. We've seen many roadside shrines, some just tiny roadside crosses, some small doll house size buildings, some just paintings of Our Lady of Guadalupe on rock faces and some large family shines at people's homes. This one was by far the largest we've seen to date and it's really kind of out in the middle of no where!



And our little lizard in the palm tree has been so active and so quick, we haven't been able to get a picture of him until this week. I think he trusts us more now, as he was way down on the trunk, not more than four feet from the ground and he just sat there while I approached with the camera!



Please continue to pray for our language and culture learning, relationships with our fellow workers and our neighbors and for all the people in the various camps around us!

Thanks for your prayers and your support...we appreciate it so much and our honored to serve the Lord here.

Love and blessings,

Ralph & Chris

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.

A different kind of week

If we have learned one thing living here it's that days are never routine, and flexibility is key. This week has been no different!

Since we were in Mazatlan last Monday for team meeting anyway, we decided to pop in on Toodie and Alton Knutson, the retired missionaries that we lunched with a few weeks back. They are getting ready to head back to Minnesota, and we wanted to see them before they took off for home. We had a nice visit with them, and were pleased to find out that they are hoping to be back in time for Christmas. That would be wonderful! They are the nicest folks.

Ralph had an opportunity to evangelize our Mormon neighbors too...it was an intense hour, with all three of them presenting their views, and at one point the two young men broke into song. Never had that happen before, and we've talked with lots of Mormon Elders and Sisters over the years. They will be back for more I'm sure... and since they are neighbors we see them every day anyway!

And speaking of neighbors, we were gifted with tomatoes from both Candy and Juan Manuel this week...so we've been feasting on these wonderful gifts. Vine ripened, fresh from their gardens. Eating them whole, on salads and in sandwiches! Yum!

We debated whether to go and see Sr. Lopez Obrador, presidential candidate. We didn't know if we wanted to mess with the crowds in the mid-day heat, and we didn't want to be seen as being involved in politics as guests here either. After much thought and prayer, we decided to go and observe and our neighbors also were along, Jacobo, Juan Manual and even Pastor Jose joined us on the plaza. It's a funny thing about politics, they appear to be the same here as in the U.S., but without the big motorcades and hoards of police, secret service and campaign security people, metal detectors, etc. No metal detectors in Municipal Plaza, and Sr. Lopez Obrador arrived in a minivan. But they set up a rope line, just like at home, and he worked it, just like a politician at home would. That's where the five of us were, on the rope line, so we all got to see him up close and personal and shake his hand. Ralph and I decided not to stay for the actual speech though, so we said our farewells to our neighbors and wandered back through town and homeward. Traffic was a bit heavier but that was about all the disruption there was in town.



As we were walking home, we met another fellow citizen of La Cruz, Antonio. He works in the transmission shop. He was quite chatty, wanting to know who we were, where we were from, and was astonished to find that we live here, and are not on vacation. He wanted to talk about our family back in Washington and whether or not Ralph liked to fish...and of course then the two of them were off and running talking about fishing at El Salto. He says the best time to go is in November or December and he says the fishing is fine there. I'm sure Ralph and Tom will be checking it out when the time comes, maybe Antonio will accompany them?? You never know.

We got our tax refund back on Friday and out of that we planned to buy a bed for our guest bedroom. It's been ordered and the mattress itself should be delivered any moment now, and the frame will be here on Friday or Saturday... it has to come from Culiacan, about 100K north of us. Takes a bit longer to get a queen size, but worth the wait. Okay, all of you who've promised to visit...we now have a comfy spot to sleep!

While we were at the Jackson's on Monday Mary Ann gave me a copy of The Book of Virtues, which was a gift to our field from Richard and Leslie Urie, who are now the NW regional coordinators for WMPL, based in Issaquah (Sammamish really) Washington. I get to read it first and then pass it along to Tom and Lidia! It's been a blast to read, so many stories and poems I hadn't read in years, plus many new things that are very thought provoking as well. I'm really enjoying it, and making time to squeeze it in with all my other reading.

All kinds of baby news this week too...our neighbors Candy and Diana are both pregnant, Candy due in October, making Luis a big brother at last, and Diana at the end of August or first of September with their first child. And our friends Tom and Kathy back home got a great 25th wedding anniversary gift from their daughter: their first grandchild! Welcome to Abigale Mercedes! Melissa made it tough for her three brothers to top that gift!!

We also got our first mail in La Cruz this week! A package of CDs with Pastor Bill's sermon messages!! We are so thrilled to have them, thanks to the Bob and Sue for being so thoughtful!

We sprung a leak in the pipe that feeds water to the patio area and the washer and Jacobo called his handyman, Eloy, to come and fix it. In the process of that, Jacobo decided that he also wanted Eloy to harvest the coconuts from our palm and his as they were beginning to fall and were quite dangerous! Nothing like 2 pounds of coconut falling from 40 feet or so...makes a loud bang and ricochets all around the patio. It was quite the thing to see Eloy and Modesto harvesting the more than 50 coconuts from our tree alone. Even though Modesto was quite nimble, it made us both very nervous with him perched on a 20' extension ladder that was standing on a 4-inch wide stairwell wall. Precarious to say the least. But he managed just fine, whacking away at the bunches with a machete and lowering the coconut bunches to the ground by rope. They opened several of them and shared the meat and the juice, and left us some to share with our neighbors and with the Lumppios as well! Then they were off to Jacobo's to finish the harvest!

We discovered two new tiny critters in our neck of the woods, a baby iguana living in the coco palm, and a hummingbird sitting on a nest in one of the trees on the way into town. Plus the little lizard from our patio stopped long enough for me to get a photo. He's only about three inches long from head to the tip of his tail, and he comes out mostly in the evening and hangs out on the roof or wall of the patio. The little iguana, on the other hand is a morning guy, he's up bright and early running all around. He's our entertainment during desayuno (breakfast).

This week when the guys went to Santa Lucia, I was able to go along with them and it was WONDERFUL. It was my first visit to Santa Lucia, to any camp really, since my visit to Campo Ceuta way back in January. I loved every minute of it (well maybe not the hoard of biting mosquitoes!) . So many people to meet, and the demand for the Word of God is really astounding. Darwin had tapes that people had ordered, and a copy of the Jesus video that he'd promised to a family there. Many requests for New Testaments and Gospels of John, a few for Bibles. We split up and Darwin went one direction and we went another, which with our limited Spanish (in our view anyway) was a bit intimidating. But the people were great, and we had several nice chats with folks, and had a bunch of kids that followed us pretty much everywhere we went. One little girl, Yesica, about 10, learned to count to 20 in English after just a few minutes of practice with Ralph...and couldn't wait to tell her friends. She was so excited. What we were excited about is that some of these children, Yesica included, already know the Lord. And most of them in our little entourage could sing Solemente Cristo with us, as well as the Doxology, and could also recite the Lord's Prayer. We were suitably impressed!!

We met back up with Darwin and had a rather lengthy Bible study regarding the Trinity with what started out as two guys and ended up with eight guys. In the end, all but two were convinced by the Scriptures that we used that the Trinity is real and Biblical, and I think even the other two were pretty convinced as well, they just weren't quite ready to admit it. Can't wait to get back out there and visit more.

Lastly, our Personnel Director from WMPL, Chris, arrives on the field tomorrow, staying for a week. He'll be here in La Cruz on Wednesday and Thursday and then we'll be in to Mazatlan for team meeting again next Monday and will see him again before he takes off for home on Tuesday. He'll be visiting the churches and other work here in Sinaloa, and seeing where we all live and such. He's a great guy and we are looking forward to his visit. Please pray for travel mercies and good rest, as he'll be on the road a lot during his stay.

Thanks so much for your prayers and your support. Things to keep in prayer for us are continued language and culture learning, relationships with our fellow workers and neighbors, continued health and rest, Spanish language Bibles, Gospels of John, New Testaments, 90 (60 okay too) minute cassette tapes, new or used to record Gospel messages in various languages, a tape duplicating machine, Spanish language Gospel tracts, including some in cartoon/comic format for children and low level readers. Continued access to the camps, encouragement for Pastor Jose and his family and for Darwin and Mary Ann too. They are continuing all the work they've done in the past, and are now also mentoring us and the Lumppios! Thanks so much!

Love and prayers,

Ralph & Chris

A quiet Sunday

We don't have many quiet days, but thought we might try to take one today.

We spoke via Skype to our former exchange student, Tine, in Norway and caught up with her a bit. She'd just gotten home from her job as a paramedic in Oslo and was about to go have dinner with her sister and her sister's fiance. She was just waiting for her boyfriend to get off work and join her. He's also a paramedic. We've been praying about whether to meet her and her dad in Florida in November when they come for vacation. We haven't seen them in nearly three years and it would be nice to spend some time with them again. We'll see what God has in store for that possible reunion.

Then we had church here in La Cruz, and Pastor Jose was in fine form. We sang some of the older hymns including At the Cross and A Mighty Fortress as well as some newer choruses. The service was over before we knew it and we had a nice time of fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We've begun to gather twice a week for English/Spanish lessons with one another and are enjoying that time together as well. We are certainly feeling the bond with our new church family. Praise the Lord. Thank you for your continuing prayers for Pastor and his family.

Turns out the church we visited while in Minneapolis for Briefing Course and our Directorate interview has their complete Sunday services online!! So we can watch and listen from our home here. That's a great bonus for us too. We really enjoyed that church and their staff and have friends who attend there too! Maybe we'll see them someday on the webcast!

We are also patiently waiting to receive a package of Pastor Bill's sermons from our home church too...miss his preaching!! Miss our church family there too...

Much to Ralph's dismay I have acquired a taste for Banda music, which he doesn't care for. This week I discovered there is a 24 hour a day Banda station on our satellite, Bandamax!

Here's a brief description of Banda: Banda ("band") refers to the form of music played by large brass ensembles that first appeared in the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa several decades ago. A typical banda ensemble features trumpets, trombones, tubas and percussion instruments, and may include keyboards. String instruments are used sparingly, if at all. Banda sounds somewhat similar to American Big Band music, but with a distinctive Hispanic twist.

It also ties in with the cowboy culture I've admired since I became a fan of the Professional Bull Riders years ago, as most if not all of the bands I've seen associate themselves with cowboys. Want to listen to a snippet? http://sg1.allmusic.com/cg/smp.dll?r=20.asx&link=x1xv19skeqjzi63mfquz9im

Thanks for your prayers for our continuing language and culture learning here. Our Spanish continues to improve, and I was quite thrilled to walk into city hall this past week, ask for a map, get directed to an office, actually find the office in the building, talk with the staff there and come away with a map of La Cruz! Could not have done that two weeks ago! We are also continuing to meet new people each week and that is always interesting. Building relationships as we go.

And the additional language skills has helped my search in the markets for spices and things like baking powder and baking soda. Canela is cinnamon, albahaca is basil and sal de ajo is garlic salt! (gotta have sal de ajo to make my cousin Julie's "Heart Attack Bread").

The markets in general are great learning experiences, we've gone thoroughly down the aisles in most stores, on the hunt for things we're used to buying but can't find here. For a country that runs on corn, we can't find corn meal for muffins! Tons of corn flour, but no meal or muffin mixes so far. And it was tough to find Worcestershire sauce, though we finally found a small bottle at Walmart in Mazatlan. Chocolate chips...they apparently are scarce and we haven't seen them at all yet. The only chocolate chip cookies we've had since we've been here are ones that Mary Ann made with chips someone sent her! No Skittles either...both Ralph and Tine will have withdrawals as we were her source up to now because they aren't available in Norway either!

We've both struggled to find our medications here...Ralph has settled into a substitute, but equal med, but is taking two a day rather than one because they don't come in the dosage he needs. Mine has been tougher to find. After weeks of having people tell me mine wasn't available in Mexico at all I ran into a doctor at the post office and in our chat with him I mentioned my difficulties in finding the goofy stuff. The spelling was just a little off in English from the Spanish and was causing part of the confusion, so he wrote it out in Spanish for me. It also is mostly distributed in a compound here, rather than solo, and with all my allergies I wasn't up to the challenge of experimenting with a compound. I was at last able to get a month's supply of the solo to tide me over until a shipment from an online pharmacy arrives. Please pray for prompt delivery of that order!

We are also expanding our knowledge of Mexican cuisine, visiting more and more of the local restaurants as we walk through town. Now that we are healthy again, we are getting braver about experimenting! I've gotten away from a soda at lunch and now try to have something more Mexican, such as Jamica (cold tea made from Hibiscus blossoms), Horchata (interestingly creamy cold beverage made from rice and almonds) and sangria...grape juice and I don't know what else, but it's definitely yummy. Given the option of comida Americana or comida Mexicana Ralph will vote for Mexicana every time. Got to get a good cookbook and expand my repertoire of authentic Mexican cooking. This is not the stuff you get at most Mexican restaurants in Washington! But we do miss some of our favorites from the best Mexican restaurant in the state: El Nopal in Olympia! Hi guys!!

Our quiet little town will have an important visitor on Wednesday at 12:30, presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrado will be appearing at our main plaza, giving a campaign speech. He's steadily been tops in the polls so I would imagine there will be people from throughout the district who will show up to hear what he has to say! Not sure if we want to go and listen or avoid the crowd. We'll have to see.

Ralph walks down the block to get his Cokes and he always stops to visit with the teens and the younger boys playing soccer or baseball in the street. They've gotten into a routine of high fiving, low fiving, five on the side, etc. These boys used to totally ignore our greetings as they passed by our house, but now, they not only greet us, but often initiate the greeting. Progress indeed! I remember when we first moved in I was taking out the trash one afternoon and I heard the crack of a bat and saw the ball whizzing my direction. It dropped just behind me and rolled down to me. When I picked it up, I think they all thought I was going to keep it and they were quite surprised when I pitched it back to them. Who knew that was the beginning of budding friendships with these kids.

The work at the camps continues to be interesting and exciting...and we have gotten some notes from folks who are sending us tapes and Bibles to use in that ministry. Thanks so much!

Thanks to all of you for your prayers and your support...been able to get through the bumps in the road because of you and we are grateful.

A national holiday today

Today is Benito Juarez Day in Mexico, and everyone has the day off. Schools and government offices are all closed. Sr. Juarez was a Zapoteco Indian who got a law degree and rose to power in the late 1800s. He was a councilman, judge, governor and eventually president of Mexico. He is still revered today as a hero for the work that he did for the poor and disadvantaged. You can read more about him at: http://www.mexonline.com/benitojuarez.htm

Have a great Benito Juarez Day!

Blessings,

Ralph & Chris

Sights and sounds

Living in the heart of a small farming and ranching community is always interesting. We are a town:

• where the population swells with thousands of migrant workers during the growing season
• with no car dealerships, but two tractor dealerships: New Holland and John Deere!
• with no fast food, but plenty of food options from street vendors to full blown sit down restaurants and everything in between
• that is hemmed in on all sides by acres and acres of crops in various stages of growth, some just planted and others ready to be harvested now: a wide variety of peppers, potatoes, cucumbers, melons, tomatoes, onions, corn, jicama, watermelon and much more
• where a man walking around with an unsheathed machete doesn’t even raise an eyebrow, and I’d guess just about anywhere in the states the cops would use a taser and/or pepper spray to subdue him before he was arrested and hauled off to jail
• where you can wake up to a parade, or to a cattle drive through town, depending on the day
• where a beautiful hand-made saddle hangs from the tree outside a local store and no one would think of bothering it unless they wanted to buy it



• where your electric bill is hand-delivered to your house by an electric company employee
• you pay your electric bill by walking into the office, swiping your bill in front of the bar code scanner, putting your money (paper and/or coins) in the appropriate spots in the machine and getting your change delivered in a tray at the bottom, clinking like a slot machine jackpot!
• where you awake to song birds each morning, and sometimes to the neighbors chickens crowing!
• where there are two postal employees: one mans the post office and the other delivers mail on a motorcycle with leather saddle bags for the mail
• where the vast majority of the businesses close for comida (lunch) between 2 and 4 each day
• where visiting with shoppers is considered to be part of the service in each business
• where you can buy a mango on a stick or a few nice, fresh dates from a street vendor



• where a fruit drink is just as likely to come in a plastic bag as in a cup, just add a straw and you are set to go
• where loud booming brings us outside just in time to see unexpected fireworks from the carnival that visits town…beautiful light show!
• where furniture vendors set up on the plaza to sell their handmade wares
• where your flower garden blooms even in winter!

This week has been one of the best ones so far on so many levels.

• We’ve both been healthy. Praise the Lord!



• Our Spanish is improving and we are able to communicate and learn more and more. PTL!
• We did have a cattle drive down our street, but by the time I heard it and realized what it was and got my camera I just caught the very end of it. Ralph said there were more than 100 beef on the hoof!
• We also had a carnivale parade with a lot of floats and women of every age dressed up in beautiful gowns and riding on the floats, some guys too. Everyone had eggs filled with confetti that they were throwing at each other and cracking on each other’s heads.







• We discovered a tiny lizard on our patio.
• The landlord rented the small upstairs apartment to a guy without a car, so we get the extra cochera to park in, turning our cochera into an additional covered patio! We celebrated by purchasing two metal rocking chairs to sit in out there.
• A neighbor brought her plants to me for safekeeping while she visits in Puerto Vallarta. Praise for the budding friendship and relationship building!
• Another neighbor brought us each a chocolate covered frozen banana with sprinkles that she made herself.
• We got our internet service and had a video chat with Greg, Darane’, Savannah and Nick! Woohoo! We are thankful…
• We called several family members and a few friends using the internet calling service, Skype.
• We also got our first pack of mail from home and were able to do our taxes!
• We got our kitchen cupboards (Genaro made them!) and the guys put them up in the kitchen and I put stuff away at last.



• Next week: The bookcase (also made by Genaro)! We may get completely unpacked yet!

Ralph has been so excited at the openness of everyone they meet at the camps, everyone wants to learn more, they want Bibles, New Testaments and Gospels of John! They want to sit down and study right away, they want Gospel tapes in their languages! It’s amazing. The guys are welcomed with open arms by the workers, but the other night when they returned to Campo Santa Lucia the guard that was there didn’t want them to visit or even to stay unless they went to Campo San Juan and got specific permission. So they prayed their way over there and were shuttled about to loads of people, handing out tracts the whole way and finally got permission to visit both of those camps any time they like. Next week they’ll be going out much earlier, around 2 or so, hoping they can spend more time with the various groups of people.

We made a prayer request to our prayer team this morning for cassette tapes, a tape copier and the Spanish language materials that we’ll need as we visit. There are thousands of people…God is so good to gather them all up here and send us to speak with them and share the love of Christ! We are proud to serve Him!

We’ve begun learning the Evangelism Explosion materials, from a Spanish language booklet and CD and hope to work through the material quickly and be able to begin using it soon.

Thanks for your prayers and your continued support of the Lord’s work here…

Love and Blessings,
Ralph and Chris

Nearly two months in Mexico!

Wow, we’ve already completed our first month in La Cruz and we are sneaking up on the completion of our second full month in Mexico…seems hard to believe.

This has been a week with lots of ups and downs. On the upside Tom and Lidia and the girls have been with us since last Thursday and they were excited at the prospect of getting into their own home again. They left the states on January 20th, and are anxious to get settled. Sadly, the deal on their rental house fell through and they were without a home here. But they now have two prospects, one they could move into right away and one that could take a month or more to finish. They should find out today…they are hoping for the one they could have right away because the other one would mean that they’d need to live temporarily in a small apartment or hotel for a month and they’d like to avoid that if they can.

We also had lunch in Mazatlan with a retired missionary couple, the Knutsons and our neighbors from Olympia, the Krumlands! What a blast! The Knutsons come to Mazatlan for two or three months each winter and then return to Minnesota…the Krumlands usually come for about a month. We had a lovely lunch and a great visit. The Krumlands are on their way back home now, but the Knutsons will be here another month, so we may see them again.

This week Ralph and I both caught some kind of 36 hour bug…thankfully we had it at different times, but man, were we ever sick. It kept Ralph down for two full days and me for a day and a half. Thankfully, we are both doing fine again.

While Tom and Lidia have been here she’s been helping us with our Spanish too and getting us more formally set up on the immersion method we’ve been using, Brewster! It’s so wonderful to expand our Spanish so much more quickly and in a more formal way. I actually was able to ask about a temporary water outage and be completely understood, and using full sentences too, not just the individual words that I know strung together well enough to be understood. It felt great.

Ralph and Darwin went out to Campo Ceuta again last night and spent some time working with brother Ismael. He wants to start visiting some of the parishioners who have dropped out of church of late and see what he can do to get them back, so that may be on the agenda in the near future. On a whim, they decided to see if they could locate a camp that they’d heard about but had never been to, and they located Campo Santa Lucia. The people were very warm and welcoming and the guys actually had a couple of different crowds going as they walked through the area talking with people. The guard approached them wanting to know what they were up to and when they told him said he was glad that they had come and could come any time!! So they began to take orders for Bibles and Gospel tapes and will return next week to distribute them and to get to know these new families a little more. Please keep brother Ismael and the people of Campo Santa Lucia in your prayers.

As we get to know Pastor Jose more and more he revealed to us that he had a serious injury to his leg about 17 years ago and hasn’t had any trouble with it until the last few months when a cyst developed and he had to have surgery. It’s been a struggle for him to get up and going again after this surgery, but he has persevered with the help of God. He wants to get out and visit more, so it’s likely that he and Ralph will go together and just visit perhaps one or two families each day until Pastor is fully recovered. He’s a bit discouraged over the length of time it’s taken him for recover. Please keep him and his family in prayer.

And, Praise the Lord! We did get our phone installed last week! We can only call locally for the first month, but once we get that first bill we can sign up for a package that will include long distance!! The phone installer got my hopes up by asking a friend of his to bring the modem up from Mazatlan on Wednesday and he promised he’d be back by on Thursday and install the Internet! I was so thankful and excited, because I’d been told it would be another month and five days for the Internet installation! But he never called or came back and the modem never appeared either. I was crushed.

Then on Saturday, a different TelMex guy came by and said he’d be installing the Internet that afternoon! Yippee!! I was thrilled. Then he called later in the day and said it was hooked up, and to just install the modem…which of course we didn’t have. So they ordered it and we should have it by Friday…maybe. The Lord must be working on my patience or lack there of on this one. We miss the kids so much I just want to see them. This is our biggest struggle, not being able to use the video hookup to see the kids.

This has been a good week, and we feel blessed, even getting up and finding we had no water in the building this morning didn’t seem to phase any of us…the six of us are just rolling with the flow! We just left the dishes in the sink and we’ll all bathe and do laundry when we have water again, which they tell us will be later today. At least we are all grubby together and we can laugh about it!

Thanks so much for your prayers and support…we appreciate it so much.