A little bit of everything

Ralph has been ill off and on for most of the last two weeks and he's been very frustrated by it. Missionary stomach has returned and he's also lost a lot of energy. Additionally, he has been suffering from a skin rash on his shins, back and stomach. Pretty miserable time for him. He's beginning to feel better today, but still has a ways to go. Please keep him in prayer.

Pastor Jose has been very discouraged this week, even coming to tears a couple of times during church. We ask him how he's doing, if there is anything we can do and he always says he's fine and nothing to do. Please keep him in prayer as well.

The church will be hosting a team from Minnesota in June and the two small bodies in La Cruz and Ceuta are stretching a bit in an effort to plan for them and to host them. It's a big task, so please be praying as they prepare over the next two weeks. The team will be here June 15-18 and they plan to do some puppetry and some street ministry as well as participating in Sunday services here and in Ceuta.

Two sweet little ones turned two years old this week and we were invited to both fiestas! Ivana, the daughter of our neighbor Judith (the woman who cuts Ralph's hair), had her fiesta last Saturday. She was dressed up as Belle from Beauty and the Beast and she had a great time. Her family had a huge party. There were so many kids there they had two piñatas because one wouldn't hold up for all of them to have a few swings at it! They served a nice meal, soft drinks and cake and jello (no ice cream, melts too quickly). Every party guest got a bag of sweets to take home with them. Ralph was disappointed because our workers were still here and he couldn't even make an appearance at this party.





And even though he didn't feel all that well, he didn't miss Gracie's party on Tuesday! It was Tom and Lidia's first official "do" since arriving in Mexico and they were a little nervous about doing it right. Boy, did they ever do it right! All the kids had a blast and Gracie's party was all about Tigger. Orange balloons, Tigger cake and pinata, even orange jello! They served these great hot nachos too, really fabulous, tasty beans, meat in a great sauce and two kinds of cheese on top! And of course, sent everyone home with the requisite bag of sweets! Perfectly done.




We bought a small air conditioner for use later as the summer heats up and hired Jacobo's handymen to do the installation and to add another circuit and some extra outlets in the house. It was a very long day, the guys were here more than 12 hours, sprayed a small amount of water and concrete into the living room in error, initially hooked up the new circuit incorrectly and generally made a huge mess. But we have the new circuit, six new plugs in the living room, three in the bedroom, one for the air conditioner (and a hole in the wall for the a/c unit) and one for the washer on the patio. We were able to get rid of four extension cords and two power strips! Woohoo! Plus it's so nice to just walk up to the washer and run it...not to have to open the kitchen window and run an extension cord through it for power!





In the midst of all of this we managed to tick off a couple of things for the visa list: we got our lovely black and white photos taken on the way to Gracie's party and also had the same place make the copies we needed of stuff. Slowly but surely we are making progress on this. Also, if we can't get it all together before our tourist visa expires, we DO NOT have to leave the country and come back in. We can either pay a fee and apply for an extension of our tourist visa, or we can apply for our FM visa without all the materials, then they will just wait for the rest of the stuff. We are mostly waiting on Pastor Lupe now, and the letter he had to write to Religious Affairs in Mexico City, and the official response from them. This is a continuing item for prayer.

And, after nearly four months in La Cruz we finally got our first telephone bill! Praise the Lord. Up to this point we've had to wander downtown and give the local payment guy our phone number, he'd call Mexico City to find out what we owed and we'd pay him and get a receipt. Never an itemized bill. If we can get one more paper bill from Telmex, then we can get online and get copies of the bills we missed and view and pay future bills online. That will be great. We've already discovered that we are being charged for stuff we didn't order, and those things are coming off on our next bill. It certainly helps to actually see what you are paying for!

We also got a new pack of Pastor Bill's sermons from Sue and Bob. Thanks guys!! We really enjoy getting these, certainly miss his great sermons!

For the next three weeks WMPL will be training new mission candidates in their Briefing Course in Minneapolis. Please keep the staff and participants in prayer as they complete this important step in their mission journey.

As always, we continue to need prayer for language and culture learning!! With Ralph's illness we didn't get out to practice as much as we would have liked, and any time not practicing is a setback. We hope to make up for lost time as he is feeling better.

Thanks so much for your notes, cards, prayers and support. We couldn't do this without you!

The many languages of Mexico

On being multi-lingual: The language of words

Many thanks to all of you who have sent us cassette tapes so that we can record “Palabras de Vida” (Words of Life) and other Gospel messages to distribute to the families in the camps we visit. Since we don’t own a cassette player/recorder, we asked Darwin to duplicate some for us, but he did us one better!! He loaned us the dubbing machine that is on loan to him from Gospel Recordings (with their permission, of course!). He also brought us many original tapes for the many languages of Mexico. This isn’t all the languages, mind you, but many of them. Thought you might like to see exactly how many languages there actually are! We knew there were a lot, but goodness…when he arrived with the tapes I was astounded.



The language of worship

The work in the camps is certainly winding down for the sultry summer months. Campo Santa Lucia is completely shut down for the season, but we were blessed to be invited to a send off worship there last Friday night. Jose, Ralph and I went out and said our farewells to the families we’ve been visiting as they head back south to their homes and families in Guerrero. We then we attended an outdoor worship with the small band of believers in that camp singing and praising the Lord. As an added treat for us there was a US missionary visiting from a tiny town in Jalisco (9 hours south) and we were able to visit with him for a bit too. He was happy to see us, he hadn’t spoken English in months!! We gave him our e-mail and Skype information and hope to keep in touch with him.

The language of service

We walk by these mural walls as we walk to the post office, and they were really beautiful, but had become quite faded and dirty. This week as we were driving through the neighborhood we saw teams of youth cleaning and restoring the murals. They are now so vibrant and beautiful again that they brighten up the entire neighborhood! Not sure who got this all organized, but God bless them for a lovely bit of work!



The language of music

We both love music, which is a good thing because we are pretty much surrounded by music much of the time here. We hear it in our own house, of course, at the camps, in the stores, at the plaza and in church. We also hear it from the cars and trucks that pass by, from the dances at the nearby social club and from the neighbors’ homes as well. You know I’m fond of the banda style of music that was born and bred here in Sinaloa, but I have discovered that I do have my limits!

Dia de La Cruz, May 3, we were awakened at 4 a.m. by loud banda music coming from La Cruz Plaza up the hill. By 8:30, they were still going strong so I walked up to see what was what. Turns out it was just a celebration by construction workers before heading out to work for the day. They had placed a nice bouquet of flowers at the base of the cross near the fountain and they broke up shortly after I arrived and went off to their various jobs. We also noticed many of the construction sites around town had fresh flower crosses to celebrate the day too. Nice music, but a tad too early of a start for us! These kids were at the plaza watering the flower arrangement when I went by again later in the day and they posed for a picture. Now whenever we see them in town they all greet us! (This group falls into the language of friendship and learning below!)



Then this week our three neighbors across the street banded together and had a huge party, every parking spot for blocks around was taken and they hired, guess what? A huge banda group to play for the party. At first we thought it was great, we thoroughly enjoyed the front row seats to the free concert, and we had the Lumppio girls that evening, and they were dancing and enjoying it too. But after more than five hours, we’d had enough of the music that I otherwise enjoy. Overdosed on the language of music!

The language of friendship and learning

Jose and Ralph continue to practice language with each other and it is amazing to hear them communicating and laughing and learning together. Jose is even picking up a bit of English along the way.



In the last two weeks I’ve been visited by both the Avon lady and the Jafra lady. I’m allergic to so much stuff that I’m chicken to try perfumes, lotions and makeup, but I had wonderful long conversations with both of these women and had a blast. Even got a compliment on my Spanish from the Jafra lady! Yes! I am encouraged when even strangers can understand me! Praise the Lord for the gift of language learning!

We’ve also met a couple more ladies in town during our visits. Sylvia and Letty. Two more people to visit with in our travels and practice our Spanish with. Although our other practice people still visit with us, it’s nice to expand to a couple of new folks too!

The language of love

This is one that we are intimately familiar with! The love of God and fellow Christians. The love we’ve shared in more than 34 years together. The love of our families, friends, prayer partners and fellow workers. It can be quite overwhelming at times, and is metered out in perfect doses, just as we need encouragement! Praise the Lord!



The Mexico Field Team in front of the downtown Mazatlan church: Mary Ann, Pastor Lupe, Chris B (HQ), me, Cristina, Lidia, Ralph, Gracie L, Tom, Darwin and Gracie J!

In Him,

Ralph and Chris

Quick update!

Thanks so much for your prayers for Francisco and his family. After more testing and a visit to specialist, the new doc could find no sign of the heart and kidney difficulties that had been diagnosed earlier (which resulted in the referral to him!). Praise the Lord! He does, however, have TB but that is treatable under a free government program, and he can get the treatment here in La Cruz. He lives in Tayoltita, a few miles south of here, but it shouldn't be a problem to get in and get his meds.

Also, our friend Ted's surgery on his knees was reschedule to July when he came down with pneumonia, however, our friend Carolyn's back surgery is still scheduled for May 17, so please continue to pray for her and her husband and for the health care folks who'll be caring for her before, during and after the surgery.

Please continue to pray for the visa situation. We found out on Tuesday we needed to pay an extra $400 pesos for the two letters that Pastor Lupe needs to write to get the ball rolling. That's been paid, but it just begins the process really.

Praise that Maria Luisa seems much better and is up and around more. She and Jacobo are getting ready to take off for her doctor visits in the states soon, so her improved health is a plus for their travel time. Pray that the doctors will find a solution for her health/vision problems.

Praise that Presidente Fox did not sign the new drug legislation. He had previously told the congress and the media that he would be signing the bill, but after intense pressure from other countries, including the US, he decided not to sign!!

Last, but certainly not least! We have happy news to report on the home front: two of our nieces have announced their engagements!! Billie Jo and TJ will marry on July 7, 2007 in Olympia, and Amy and Dan have announced their intent to marry during their winter break from school this coming December!! Amy and Dan are both in Bible school in Portland, Oregon, but the wedding will take place either in Shelton or Olympia. So, two unexpected but happy trips to the states coming up. We are so happy and thankful for these two matches made in heaven!! Praise the Lord!!

Love and blessings,

Ralph & Chris

Prayers and praises!

The prayers:

Please pray for Francisco and his family. He's one of the folks from Tayoltita, he's married, but his wife has left and he's working and caring for their two children, a boy 8 and a girl 10. Francisco has been quite sick in recent weeks and quite swollen. Darwin and Mary Ann took him back to Mazatlan with them two weeks ago to see a doctor there and the doc did a basic check up and gave him some tests and some meds to reduce his swelling.

This week he went back to Mazatlan with Darwin and apparently he's got some serious health issues concerning his heart and kidneys and he must return to Mazatlan this coming Tuesday for more testing with a specialist on Wednesday morning. The outcome doesn't look too good from a human perspective, as the specialist said that left untreated as he was he would have died within six months. The issues are not only his health but his kids and his wife too. Appreciate your prayers.

Prayers also for our landlord's wife, Maria Luisa. She has diabetes, and has been having vision problems for some time now. Jacobo has been taking her to various doctors and they have been doing various treatments without much improvement. Additionally, she seems much more frail recently, though she will tell you that she's actually feeling better. She's lost more weight, and was thin when we first met her in January. Jacobo recently got a referral to an eye specialist in Los Angeles, and another in Yuma, AZ. They are preparing to take a trip to see them both in hopes of having her failing vision restored. Please keep them in prayer not only for all the health professionals that they will see but also for travel mercies as they drive up for these appointments.

Prayers also for two friends at home in Washington having surgeries coming up soon. For Ted, our neighbor from around the corner in Olympia, who has knee surgery scheduled for May 5 and Carolyn, from our small group at church, who has her surgery scheduled for May 17. Both have been in a lot of pain, and it is our prayer that the Lord will guide the surgeons and get them on the road to recovery, free from the pain that has plagued them.

Prayers also for our newly reformatted team meetings, the first of which is tomorrow. We'll be meeting at a beach, worshiping, communing, sharing and eating comida together. The beach, worship and communion are new additions to the meeting, coming out of our visit from our personnel guy. And we'll only be meeting once a month now, rather than every other week. May 1 is also a national holiday in Mexico, the day of the worker, Dia de Trabajo.

Prayers for our visa process. We've just discovered that Pastor Lupe in Mazatlan must write letters for the three of us (me, Ralph and Tom) and send them off to Mexico City, and then we have to wait for a letter back from them before we can apply for our visas. We all need to at least apply for our visas before the end of June or we'll have to drive to Nogales and enter the country again on a tourist visa! Please pray that Lupe gets the letters out this week, and that the officials in Mexico City also act quickly on the requests and return them promptly so that we can get the process going officially and avoid a trip north! Lidia, Cristina and Gracia are Mexican citizens and don't need visas!!

Prayers for Darwin, Mary Ann and Gracie as they prepare for a couple of months of travel to visit and encourage the churches in Puebla and Nogales before they head out to San Diego for their vacation. They expect to leave sometime in mid-June when Gracie gets out of school and return in early September. Travel mercies, good relationships with the church leaders and good rest and relaxation with family in the states.

Prayers that Presidente Fox WOULD NOT sign a bill before him from the Mexican congress, which would eliminate penalties for those caught with small amounts of some drugs. Sales of drugs in any quantity would still be illegal, but certain possessions by "consumers" would not. Here's a list of the drugs and the "okay" amounts for personal use:

opium (raw, to be smoked) 5 grams
heroin, 25 mg
marijuana 5 grams
cocaine 500 mg
LSD .015 mg
MDA 200 mg
MDMA (Ecstasy) 200 mg
mescaline 1 g
peyote 1 KG (2.2 pounds)
psilocybin (concentrate, pure, active ingredient) 100 mg
hallucinogenic mushrooms (raw, off the farm) 250 mg
amphetamines 100 mg
dexamphetamines 40 mg
Phencyclidine (PCP, or Angel Dust) 7 mg
methamphetamines 200 mg
Nalbuphine (synthetic opiate) 10 mg

The praises!!

Praise as this week and last I was able to read the scripture in church when Pastor called on me!! I was surprised, as he's never called on me before and now he's done it two Sundays in a row. I'm thankful that my Spanish has improved enough that I can be understood when I speak and also when I read aloud, so I didn't embarrass myself. Our learning is not just speaking, but reading and writing as well. I also was thankful this week as my bookcase Genaro made arrived and it is a thing of beauty! He did such a nice job with it, even put it on casters so I can move it easily to dust under it! I was able to write a thank you note to him and Carmen in Spanish. Carmen would accept nothing less of course!! We were so blessed to have these two as our hosts for our first month in Mexico.

Praise also for an early morning visit from Pastor Jose on Thursday. He arrived at 7:45, I was cleaning the patio and he was cleaning the church and he came by with more tamales de Elota for us, which was very nice. He stayed and chatted for more than an hour and then asked if he could accompany Darwin and Ralph to Campo Santa Lucia that evening!!! What a tremendous blessing! We had been praying that he would take an interest in the work in the camps so we were thrilled that he asked to come along. He had a blast and asked if he could go again next week!! We weren't sure if he would or not, but this morning in church he prayed for the people in the camps, and after service he reiterated to us that he wanted to go again on Thursday!! Praise the Lord!!

Praise also for communion today in church. This is the first time we've had communion since January 8 at our home church in Olympia!!! The churches and pastors here have been trained, but they "just don't do it". But this morning when we arrived for church Mimi (Pastor's daughter) was preparing the wine and wafers! Hopefully La Cena del Senor (The Lord's Supper) will become a regular part of our worship times. That's our prayer!

Thanks for praying and praising along with us. We love and appreciate you all so much.

Town and home tour

We've had several people ask to see more of our town and more of our home, so here goes!

We rent an apartment in a building with six other families, all in varying sizes of apartments. Ours is one of the largest, with two bedrooms, many of the others have just one. We are at one end, the landlord and his wife (Jacobo and Maria Luisa) are at the other on the bottom floors. Diana and her husband and their roommate live above us. That's their patio above our cochera.



Most places here, including ours, have no water heater, no furnace and the whole house runs on one breaker. Water for our shower is heated by a coil that runs into the shower head. This isn't our shower, but it shows the same thing and the wire running directly into the shower head. Took some getting used to but it works great!!



Here's a look at our patio, where we have breakfast, rest, read, visit and pray, as well as garden and do laundry:





Our living room:





Our kitchen:



Our bedroom. Notice no blankets! We've already lost the quilt, which we needed when we first moved here, then the blanket, and now we are down to just the sheets!




Our guest room:



A view of La Cruz from the air:



This is a look up and down our street. In the "down" view, that's the rest of the apartment building on the left and the church on the right. In the "up" view, that's Hotel JR on the right:




Plaza La Cruz is at our end of town:



The municipal plaza at the other end (also known as Miguel Hidalgo Plaza). The Catholic church is located on the plaza. This large plaza is where most stuff happens in town. We walk up here every day and get an "agua fresca" of some kind and people watch and visit.



The municipal building is across the street from municipal plaza and the interior is an open courtyard design, very pretty. There's even a large mural in the stairwell, but it's too dark and too big to get a picture:




A couple of the side streets, the second one shows Rin Rin Pizza, the largest pizza joint in town. Two of our neighbors, Diana and Luis Francisco work here. But we get our pizza from Felix, across from Hotel JR, MUCH better pizza and one block from home!




This tree trunk looks like an elephant foot to me, and it marks where one of the larger ferreterias is in town...big hardware store. They put a lot of their merchandise out on the sidewalk, sometimes you have to squeeze by. It's not Home Depot, but it's big for here.



The La Cruz Post Office:



Uncrowded beach at Playa Ceuta, 10 minutes from the house. You won't find one like this in Mazatlan!!



Fishers at Playa Ceuta:



Samples of shells from Playa Ceuta:



That's the tour...thanks for asking!

Have a blessed day!

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.