INVASION

At least that's what we would call it in the US. Last Saturday morning at 3:25am, I awoke to see someone rummaging through our living room/kitchen area with a flashlight. My first thought was that Ethan was trying to find something before heading out to take pictures early in the morning, which he often does around 5:30am.  

Wait, it's 3:25am!

That's not Ethan then.

This is not good (I start yelling and stumbling out of bed).

If you've woken up in a potentially life-threatening situation (at least that is what some primitive part of your brain is telling you, you are in), then facing an intruder half-asleep doesn't leave you with alot of "if-then" scenarios that tell your still sound asleep frontal-lobe what you should do next. I started shouting, not realizing that the implication of telling a thief to go away is inviting them to leave WITH whatever stuff of YOURS they already have.

This thief doesn't expect someone to wake up, so he takes off across the patio, onto the first balcony, across to our entry stairs, and down to the street. I run back to get the keys, run outside and see no one. I drive around our small town looking (and what would have I had done if I had found someone?), but there is nothing. When I return to the house I notice that the thief left Colleen's purse in the driveway, along with an electronic picture frame that he didn't have time to grab. Inside her purse are STILL our passport cards, visa cards, credit cards, ID's etc. Only the cash is gone, an older phone, and her prescription sunglasses (not the easiest thing to sell, I would think). WOW.

Before moving here, we read plenty of books which described late-night burglary as common in Mexico (it is), but when you actually see someone INSIDE your house it adds a dimension of reality that motivates you to check all the locks, install some very prickly plants at easy access points, motion lights, etc. And then, we pray. Actually, we've always prayed since landing here that God would protect us, and I believe he did. If the thief had not been greedy and had only taken Colleen's purse and ran, I would have never woken up when he came back the second time for more stuff. We would have been gloriously inconvenienced with loss of bank cards, visas, passports, ID's . . . etc. Instead, the thief returned, I woke up, and he made out with $250 in cash, a cell phone, and a pair of scratched sunglasses that are worth nothing to anyone except Colleen.

Our Mexican friends here had various responses from filing a police report (we did), to calling all of them, next time, so that they could hunt down the thief with shovels and bricks. So the next morning, after my 3:25am wake-up call, I showed up at the Ministerio Publico at 10am only to be told that the person who takes reports is not there. After buying prickly plants (4 large agave plants, 4 large fired pots, 4 iron pot stands, and soil for less than $100USD!), I return at 1pm. The office is totally closed. A helpful traffic cop says that they usually don't close until 2pm, but . . . they do open from 6-10pm. I return at 6:30pm just in case they decide to open late. One woman is alone in the office and after some help from another traffic cop (their offices are in the same building) she reluctantly lets me in. "Why didn't you come earlier so we could get fingerprints?" she says. "Funny you should say that," I reply. For the next 2 hours, she carefully records my report on her manual typewriter. I snap a picture while she is away making copies of the report, none of which I receive. She tells me that she'll be at my house at 11am the next morning (Sunday). We're ready by 10am. 11am nothing, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm, 4pm still no one. At 5pm we decide to head to the beach. When we return our neighbor says, "Hey, the police came 5 minutes after you left!". I'm still trying to track them down. Two nights ago our neighbor was broken into. The thief cut a line down the screen door and helped themselves to the guests' cell phones (it's hot here, so their sliding door was open for ventilation). I installed a photo eye that I've wired to a wireless doorbell to tell us when someone is coming up the stairs.

The desk of the licenciada at the Ministerio Publico.

Despite the frustration of loosing a few things, our response to this little incident has actually connected us to more people here in our little town and in the larger town close by. We have reflected on how much we value "stuff" versus "people" and are still very thankful to be here.

I just finished reading Richard Wurmbrand's In God's Undergound with Ethan, and we had just read a few nights before, the section below. Let the radical nature of this rabbi's concern for a person's soul reset your love for people, even the people who might seek to hurt you or steal from you.

"I answered by telling the story of a famous rabbi who was living in the Ukraine in Czarist times, and was once called upon to give evidence in defense of a follower. The noble looks and spirituality of Rabbi Hofez Haim impressed the court, but the old man refused to take the oath; he was unwilling, he said, to involve God's name in his evidence. The prosecution protested, "We must have a guarantee that he is telling the truth." The defense lawyer rose. "Your honor," he said, "may I mention something that will prove the character of my witness and show that we can accept his evidence, even if, for religious reasons, he cannot be put on oath? Rabbi Hofez Haim often goes from shop to shop collecting money for the poor. One day a thief knocked him down and snatched the purse containing the collection. The rabbi was upset, not so much at the loss of the money, which he instantly decided to replace from his own small savings at home, but at the harm done to the thief's soul. He ran after him calling, "You have no guilt before God; it is my money and I give it to you freely! The money for the poor is safe at my house! Spend what you have taken with a clear conscience."

How concerned are we about another's soul? Are we concerned enough to ignore whatever losses we incur for the sake of another's soul?

Pastors Conferences in Chiapas and Guatemala

Pastor Marco teaching exegesis with iPad and projector

THE JUMP TO LIGHT-SPEED (or at least the 21st century)

Adapting to new technology

One of the added benefits of being able to live here full-time is the opportunity I have to mentor people. Of course, I have my mentors as well, both in the US and here in Mexico, as I seek input to clarify and correct our work here. This picture here of Marco teaching using an tablet and LCD projector represents a significant milestone in my work here equipping pastors.  For the last 8 years, we have

A registration table!

used overhead projectors and transparencies to help pastors take notes during our teaching, and to graphically illustrate concepts in our teaching. The plus side of an overhead projector is it's simplicity, but with most of our teaching arenas being outside, the visibility of the transparencies were usually very poor. One of my goals this year was to train our team to use tablets connected to projectors to annotate digitally while teaching. As you can see from the pictures, the image is very clear which is really important when the pastors you are teaching are partially illiterate. What I had planned to be a slow roll-out of technology turned into an instant transformation when the overhead projector we were attempting to use was too dim to be readable. During the first lesson, we quickly set up the tablet and projector, which we already used for worship slides, and after a crash course in annotating a PDF on a tablet, we were off and running.  Amazing.

BLESSING AND BEING BLESSED

Despite the fact that we are constantly invited to teach conferences throughout Mexico, we always question our motives: 1) Whether we are reaching out to the right people?, and 2) What kind of longer impact on their on communities will training pastors to more effectively teach and understand the Bible have? These are questions we wrestle with as a team, and so we evaluate each conference based on the responses of the pastors and churches where we are conducting each conference. Previous conferences in Chiapas (southern Mexico) were well-received, and culturally the pastors in Chiapas are some of the most studious pastors I have ever met. There are also other indicators, which both stand out as evidence of sincere need and genuine thankfulness, in the thorough attention to detail that churches put forth in their preparations to host conferences. We request very few items outside of a sound system for music and teaching. The churches provide the food, coffee, and in this case (see picture above) 3 people who set up to register pastors as they arrived for the conference. Being that this used to be my principle task, to register pastors and create name tags, I was both very impressed and relieved at the same time! An even more humbling event at both conferences was a formal presentation of gifts to us from each group of pastors. These were distinct groups, and yet each group expressed their appreciation to us by presenting us with these small gifts, which we understand to be indicators of the value these conferences have for these pastors.

Public transportation

DIFFERENCES

to feed his younger brothers

A boy of 16 earning money on the street by blowing gasoline on his flame

As we intentionally seek out areas of need in Latin America, we are constantly reminded that we are further and further away from the comforts of home, even comforts my Mexican leaders are accustomed to. As we were eating breakfast our first morning in Guatemala, one of our leaders remarked at how terrible the food was. "That's why we're here," said another leader. Indeed. I neglected to snap a picture of the ubiquitous armed guards that stood in front of almost any shop or restaurant, from a fried chicken fast-food (read KFC-ish) to a small cell phone shop, all of them had at least one guard with a shot-gun and bandolier of shells around his chest. It's a disconcerting thought to see  where the balance between peace and violence rests in the hands of an armed guard who makes less than $5/day. Just crossing into Guatemala makes Mexico seem like the US in comparison. The sense of desperation and hopelessness on the faces of the people, and the way in which everything from toothpaste

Traveling to the conference in Guatemala. No kidding its safer this way!

to medicine to computers costs so much more for people who make so much less.

End of the conference in Guatemala.

MENTORING FOR CHANGE

There has been some movement in the last few years towards using technology to teach pastors remotely in developing countries. While there are great benefits in getting tools and resources into the hands of pastors quickly, as a team, we feel called to mentor and disciple great leaders. As in a business, you wouldn't hand a book to an employee and expect them to become a model employee, you have to walk them through the material and verify that not only do they comprehend it, but that they could teach someone else the same material. We're doing that, and trying to take it a step further. As we have conducted over 20 conferences and trained over 900 pastors in Mexico and Guatemala, we have accumulated a short-list of pastors, who have displayed the ability to mentor other pastors. We are working with them to encourage, coach and mentor them so that they can transform their communities.

Our Life in Chacala . . .

On this "Fall" day, it is 92 degrees outside and 88 degrees inside, so as I write to you, the fans are blowing and the sun is shining. I'm having a hard time welcoming in the new season without much evidence of change, except for the few Fall decorations we brought with us, but such is life in the tropics. We can live vicariously through all of your photos & tales of the changing seasons!

As some of you might be curious as to where we have landed, after uprooting our lives in Escondido of 13 years, I wanted to share with you what our life looks in Chacala through a "tour" of sorts. Now that we're settled in, the school year is in full gear, and we are gearing up for our next pastor's conference here in Chacala, there's no time like the present.

Here's the village of Chacala, on the north end with the beach on the north side. This is about 2 hours north of Puerto Vallarta via automobile.

Here is the main "street" with a few hotels, restaurants, street tacos, and tiendas (groceries & gift shops).

Here is the Plaza with the Chac Mool restaurant in the background.



Here is the fish market, where fresh fish comes in daily from the nearby harbor (below). 
Fishing is one of the main occupations of local residents, next to tourism.

Here's the local market where we buy the basics: bread, fruit, veggies, milk, yogurt, chips, soda, and ice. Anything more, we need to go to the nearest town, Las Varas, which is 20 minutes away. Most other things, we shop for when we go to Puerto Vallarta (2 hours away); at Costco, WalMart, or other big chain grocery stores.

Then it's off to Alistair's kindergarten . . . just a small walk towards the harbor from this store.

This school is for 3, 4, and 5 year olds. The classroom is the light orange building (below). The purple building is where the teacher sleeps and lives all week. His home is a ranch an hour away, so he commutes by bus on Monday and Friday (this reminds me a bit of Little House on the Prairie). The tiny red building under the tree has a tiny kitchen and bathrooms for the kids. The families of the 6 students are on a rotation to provide a substantial snack for the students & teacher each day at 10:30am. School is from 9:00am to 1:30pm. The salmon colored building in the background is a vacation home/rental house.

Below,  a student is given a book to "read" (describe what they see) as they look at the pictures. Amazingly, Alistair is really enjoying school now after a few really rough weeks.

Back in town, don't forget our favorite pizza place . . .



And our favorite hotel & restaurant, Las Brisas . . .

Now leaving "downtown",  you head up the hill towards our house. Here in the foreground is a small lagoon filled with lily pads (dark green). Then in the distance is another lagoon that is light green, where the local crocodile lives. Then beyond that, where the palm trees are, is a campground right on the beach and amongst the coconut trees. On the weekends & holidays you will see a handful of big tour buses lined up here. In the very far distance is a hill of mango groves, which was once a volcano, and you can hike up to see the crater.

Back to the main road, where the clinic is on the left (pictured below) and the turn off for our house 
is to the right.

If you continue straight here for another 100 feet on the main road, you would come to this great park.

If you were to turn right from the clinic, this is what you would see, our road. After the rains, it has become more of a 4 wheeling practice course, great for mountain bikes. The house you see here is not ours, but our neighbors, we are directly across from him to the left.

Here's our place . . . built on the rocks.

And if you were to come visit, you might find this guy waiting to greet you. 
Alistair calls him "Brown Guy".

These are our neighbor's bananas, almost ready for harvest.

And of course Sydney and Ethan working hard on their schoolwork.

I hope you enjoyed your tour of Chacala!  

With all of these sights, please don't forget the wonderful people that live here (more introductions to come later) along with the plethora of mosquitoes and other exotic insects and animals all thriving amongst the heat and humidity.

My "neighbor" Juan

Our closest "hospital" in Las Varas. Juan is in the first bed, being examined by a doctor. The patient in the next bed is being treated for anaphylaxis from a scorpion sting. The boy looking at the laptop on the left is a child of one of the staff.

One of the things that we struggle with here are needs. Needs are everywhere. Sure, in the larger cities here, life seems almost normal with running water, electricity, internet, but even in large cities there are huge needs. Just to be able to keep our heads on straight, I think we sometimes avoid the needs so that we don't get overwhelmed and try to fix everything. So after doing ministry in Mexico for over 10 years now we have attempted to be selectively compassionate. Sounds lame huh? Well, it is frustrating to see so much need, and not be able to do more, but we are trusting that our focus on equipping pastors will facilitate better growth and health in each community where those pastors minister. Sometimes however, we can't ignore a need that God has clearly put in front of us. The death of Juan Borrayo (last newletter) just a month ago was a reminder to us that life is faster and shorter here. Thus, when our friend Juan (the town painter) fell sick a few weeks ago, we tried to help him with meals, but he never got better. Last Friday, I decided that Juan looked so bad that I should take him to a hospital (above) and so I did. Medicine in Mexico is a la carte for the most part, so if you need a blood test, you have to go to a separate lab across town for the blood test. Fortunately, the results are ready in hours not days like the US, but then you have to run the results back to the doctor. Juan's initial bloodwork (I'll spare you the full details) showed anemia, elevated white blood cells, and severely elevated platelets. The doctor at the first hospital recommended that Juan go to another hospital closer to Puerto Vallarta, so I drove him there. When the doctor at the second hospital saw the results from Juan's bloodtests, he thought that there must have been a mistake at the lab and ordered another round of tests. Unfortunately, these came back even worse: Hemoglobin 7.2, Platelets 1125, WBC 11. The doctor said he wanted to get Juan on a IV, so he wrote out a prescription.

Doctor in San Pancho literally typing out his notes.

Now since they wanted to keep Juan overnight, I went to the pharmacy (below) to buy IV fluids, IV vitamins, a bottle of water, and toilet paper, since the hospital doesn't provide those things. They will feed you, but no water, and no toilet paper.

Local pharmacy located right across the street from the hospital.

So Juan spent a very uncomfortable, sleepless night in the hospital, and I picked him up the next day. Hoping the hospital had given him medicine to thin his blood (they did not), I arrived to find Juan still in pain and with a prescription for antibiotics for an infection and a recommendation that he see an internist, when he gets on the equivalent of Mexican medicare "seguro". With the generous help of some of our donors, I paid the bill and took Juan back to Chacala. Fortunately, since then we have been able to get the paperwork started to help Juan get on "seguro", and hopefully get him to an internist who can properly diagnose his condition. We were able to email his blood tests to a prominent doctor in San Diego who was much more alarmed at Juan's results than folks were here. I think the lack of response by the local doctors is because they are so overwhelmed by people showing up with such difficult situations, and they clearly don't have the same magnitude of resources that we are accustomed to back in the US. As I went to check on Juan today, I was thinking of the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:29 where a man asks Jesus "who is my neighbor?" I know I have neglected many "neighbors" in my life who have been in need, but I'm thankful that in this very small situation we were all able to help our neighbor Juan.  I'll post another update on Juan when we know more.

The Reward for Going to the Bank

Car Wash - Local Style

Here's a local car wash (the best one I've found so far) where we take our car (the white one) to get washed, and bonus, providing you bring the filter and oil, they will change your oil too. The car doesn't look that dirty you say? True enough, but you should see the inside! Now, when we first starting using local services here over 8 years ago, I had the same reaction you might have of how different things are here.  Most things here are built for utility with very little attention to form. So when you come from the land of smooth roads, clean sidewalks, air conditioned businesses with manicured lawns and gardens, your first impression here isn't a good one. Also, I have encountered enough folks here who seem to see dollar signs when they see my face, that I started to become wary of every transaction that I needed to make. Over time, I learned to take notice of details that would result in dependable service. At a car wash, it is subtle things like having a key rack to hang the keys for each car, speakers for the sound system spread apart to provide ambient music (read: not a overly loud ghetto blaster), and chairs for clients to sit in while their car is washed are small things, but indications that they care about their business. This one even had a recycling bin. Big deal you say?  In a country where many folks just toss their trash out the window (even while driving through the middle of town!), a business that voluntarily maintains a recycle bin (there's no $ in it for them) is significant. A complete wash, vacuum and windows cleaned is around $6 USD.  With today's oil change it will be around $10 USD including tip.

Fruitful Time in Compostela

Over the past weeks we have both had the opportunity to spend time with the Diaz family and their church, Perdon y Amistad, in Compostela (about 45 minutes away). This is the same church that was able to complete building their church building after an incredible fundraising campaign, led by Rob & Mary Honer, several years ago.

One evening, Colleen was invited to share at their women's bible study. It was a great time of understanding more about what God says about prayer. The ladies listened intently and God was faithful to remind us of the power of scripture. Everything sounded even better through Fernando's translation, his first time at the women's bible study too.

A week later, Chuck was invited to preach at their Sunday worship service. Chuck preached in spanish and was received very warmly. He was challenged by a few new words he had learned during his preparation, but really delivered a powerful message. The church leadership has also asked for support and encouragement with their discipleship and leadership training in the weeks to come. What a great opportunity!

A special treat at their services is the exceptional music! This family is so talented. Nothing like rockin' out for Jesus.

Highlights from the May 2013 Chacala Pastors Conference

An incredible conference indeed, here are a few reasons why . . .

A lot of new pastors in attendance ~ It is always a tremendous blessing when a large percentage of attendees are first timers. It's reassuring to know that previous attendees are sharing their experiences with their acquaintances and sharing the vision. Then there are the amazing testimonies of how these precious pastors and their wives were able to come to the conference and what they are expecting God to do during the week.

A group of new pastors, hanging out, during registration.

Reaching the indigenous people ~ As a result of Chuck, Rafael, and Pedro's visit to the mountains a few months ago (see previous post), an indigenous pastor and his wife came to this conference. During their mountain adventure, Chuck's team drove over questionable roads, through a river, parked, and walked a mile to visit pastors in that area (this is before rainy season). The indigenous couple many more hours into the mountains from where Chuck's team visited. The couple hiked several hours and travelled by car for at least 14 hours to come to the conference. They had heard about the team's visit and wanted to find out what this conference was all about. Awesome! During the conference, they were invited up front to translate what was being sung & said into their native tongue, what a treat! They would love for Chuck & the team to come visit their area, Chuck thought he may need to hire a pack of burros.



A Time for Healing ~ During the conference, as we strive to strengthen marriages, we provide a special opportunity for the husbands & wives.  During one day, there is a special teaching time for the ladies, and during this time the husbands write a love letter to their wives. Then that evening during fellowship time, letters are picked at random, for the husband to read to his wife on his knee, while she sits, in front of everyone. For some this is very moving, as they may not hear these words of admiration, love, and affection from their husband very often, let alone in front of a whole crowd. This week a husband shared of his thankfulness to his wife for her patience, endurance, and love for him as he had abused her and been an alcoholic previously. What a transparent moment and opportunity for healing in their relationship. Would you pray for them? That God would continue to bring healing, transparency, and growth to their marriage.


Special friends ~ What fun it was to serve the pastors with our dear friends, Dave & Dala Breummer (see their posts).  They were incredible! Dala used her spanish to have many conversations with many in attendance.  Dave taught the men. Dala taught the ladies. They both served meals, moved chairs, hung tarps, cleaned tables, prayed, and loved on everyone.  Their patience, humility, and tireless energy were an inspiration to us all. What a special week!




Wisdom Shared ~ Something new this conference was a panel on marriage, provided by Paul & Elaine Newkirk and Bill & Jane Robertson. Both couples have faithfully served at many conferences, and what an significant impact they made. God spoke profoundly through their experiences and wisdom gained through their own journeys. Difficult questions were asked and thoughtful, practical, insightful, and discerning wisdom was shared.

Alistair is taking it all in.

Sydney entertaining the kids.

An awesome lunch crew.

     

Outages and differences

Thank you for your prayers for us in transition!  We have certainly been encouraged by your notes, goodbye greetings and updates of goings on up in the States.  Some of you have asked how life is now that we have arrived in Mexico permanently. In our experience the leaving was not too difficult because we were excited to be doing ministry full-time here in Mexico.  Our departing was mixed with some saddness to say goodbye to many good friends we have known in our 13 years in Escondido.  Arriving however was like a birthday, you know you should feel different, but you hope not too different.

There are some clear differences in lifestyle that we have been acquainted with previously, but all of these differences take on new meaning when you are here to stay.  One of these differences is the unreliability of utilities.  Those of you who have travelled in Mexico and other places in the developing world will remember seeing water tanks on top of each house in Mexico and elsewhere.  Roof-top water tanks solve two problems.  The first is that it alleviates the need for each city to have pressurized water because the water in each tank is then gravity fed into the house.  The second reason is that when the water service is interrupted (a somewhat frequent occurrence) you always have the water in your tank to use until the service is restored. 

Broken water pipes and a long ditch always portend bad news about water.

The funny thing for us was that the last full day we were in our house in Escondido, the water department left a note on the door that the water would be turned off on our street for repairs for 12 hours. We put some water in buckets to give our house a last cleaning before our renters moved in, and the next day, the water was only off for a few hours, not the 12 hours they had announced. Therein underscores the small differences in life in Mexico as opposed to the U.S. After arriving last Monday, I was leaving Chacala early Tuesday morning for a meeting with some of our leaders when I saw that a large section of the water main pipe was dug up indicating that we would be without water for at least another day (it has been off since a week ago Saturday). Thus, we were hopeful that we would have water restored by today (Monday), but yesterday the town officials announced that during the night Saturday that the town water pump had been stolen extending our water outage for another week (hopefully). Thankfully the house we rent has a large cistern, which should last over a week, so we are fine and we can order a water truck if we have to.  

La pipa (water truck) delivering 14,000 liters of water is a welcome sight with one more week of waterless Chacala to continue.

Here the people are not happy to be inconvenienced by the lack of water, but everyone finds another way. Imagine in the U.S. if your water was off for 2 weeks or more, these things make national news back home!  Power outages are common here too during the rainy season (June-October) and sometimes longer ones (3-4+ days) when folks come in the night to steal the wire from the transmissions lines. Of course, there are other things which we foreigners consider inconveniences, but we're relatively used to them. Besides, if all we ever had to report from the field was how different everything is here, we probably wouldn't make it here for very long!  So don't read this as a rant, but rather a description of the reality of life, which is ever so more rich because we can invest our lives with these great folks without concern of when we have to return.  Thanks for holding us up in prayer as we seek to serve God here in His kingdom.

February's Remote Survey Trip

DAY 1 - I have to start with this picture first because it illustrates the unexpected nature of working with folks in Latin America. Trying to make the most of my time, I flew into Puerto Vallarta early in the morning so that I could meet with one of our leaders along the way, and then pick up another leader who asked to accompany me in our 4 hour drive north to Acaponeta. When we arrived in Acaponeta, we met up with another pastor/leader who wanted to eat. That was fine with us, as we hadn't eaten anything but snacks so that we could arrive as quickly as possible. 

Mexican funeral

So, while we were eating tacos, Pedro says that he has to go "do a funeral." A funeral? That's right, Mexican funerals are usually at night, and if you really know the family you're supposed to stay there ALL NIGHT talking with them. Funeral homes in Mexico occupy very small store-fronts that barely have space for a small showroom (think 20'x20' small) for caskets. Instead, the funeral home, which is hosting the funeral, host the funeral in front of the house of the deceased (or in front of the church) IN THE STREET. The street is closed for the day, a canopy is erected in front of the house, chairs are set up for people close to the family to sit, and the service typically doesn't start until 10pm. You can tell from the picture that while certain close friends stay under the canopy all night visiting with the family, other less connected townsfolk sit on the motorcycles for the service before leaving. When we finally arrived at Pedro's house for the night, after the funeral, it was too late to heat water for showering, so we went straight to bed.

When the road stops you start walking

DAY 2 - 5:00am we start driving north-east out of Acaponeta where the pavement ends about 40 minutes outside of town. We stop to pick up Miguel, who is an indigenous indian pastor, who lives in the first town we visit, some 3 hours drive into the interior.  As the road gets progressively worse (when you are driving 5 mph and braking, it's bad) I start to wonder who actually lives out here? Just then we come down a steep grade into a village of about 300 people. I have my answer, these 

Rafa and Pedro visiting with Pastor Bartolo

people do. In the next town (which is actually a 4 hour drive, instead of the 3 hours suggested by the locals), we arrive at the first pastor's house. Pastor Bartolo (pictured here to the left) has pastored in this village for just 4 years now. Where we are sitting is where Bartolo and his family have church.  After visiting with Pastor Bartolo and hearing his story, he invites us to lunch inside a small adobe building where we have some homemade tortilla, eggs, potatoes and cactus.

Lunch being prepared

Cooking fire

As it would be very expensive to bring in propane or other fuels for cooking, all cooking is done with wood fire.  Sometimes the fire is the corner of an outside room, so like this design above, it is incorporated into the structure of the house with only a small percentage of smoke making its way around the metal cooking griddle over the fire. In this case, the smoke cures and dries out the corn hanging from the roof so that the bugs won't eat it. Using wood fires for cooking is also very common in smaller towns even where propane is readily available because of the lower cost. It's hard to convey the texture of tortillas made by hand ground corn, but I'll leave you to imagine a much thicker and coarse texture.

Pedro with Pastor Samuel

What's unmistakable is the joy and encouragement these families show when we arrive. Separated by distance and a few hours of practically impassable roads, the pastors living in these remote areas rarely have opportunities to see friends, let alone have people visit them. I've frequently contrasted this with the opportunities our family has had over the last year to spend time visiting with friends and family before we leave to reside in Mexico. Electronic communication is a marvel at being able to communicate facts, events and to be able to "update" each other, but it is really not the kind of connection we share when we are able to be with each other in person. This makes me so exceedingly grateful that we'll be able to really start connecting with our leaders, pastors and other folks in our community in Mexico.  Thanks for making this possible!