San Juan del Rio Is Growing Fast

The economy doesn't appear to be very good, but our small city is still growing.  I just read an article today in our local online paper that the government is funding the construction of 5,000 new small houses.  Another government project will fund an additional 1,200 houses.  The total deficit of needed houses is estimated at 8,000.  That probably would mean between 20,000-30,000 people for that many homes.  Wow.

It appears that all of this new construction is over on the side of town where the fledgling community center is located.  It is about 4 miles across town from our home to the community center.  This construction will be added to housing construction we've observed over the past couple years.  Can you imagine adding 25,000 people to a one-mile stretch that you drive routinely?  I can't either, but it appears we'll find out soon enough!  

Unfortunately, we don't have many workers here in San Juan del Rio to develop more outreach and ministry.  Pray to the Lord of the harvest with us...the fields are white and the laborers are few; Jesus said "GO!" and very few ever get moving.

http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldesanjuandelrio/notas/n2010812.htm  (in Spanish)

Two Projects Today (prayers gladly accepted!)

I've meant to mention this first project for a couple of weeks and it just hasn't made its way from brain to screen due to a condition known as forgetfulness.

Late this afternoon (evening in the USA, we are still at central standard time until April 3rd), the ladies at the Abundant Life Bible Church are hosting an evangelistic ladies' tea.  They asked Beth to be give the main message which she has somehow been finding a little time to prepare for over the past month.

Please join us in praying that there will be some unsaved ladies in attendance (many have been invited) and that the Holy Spirit will work powerfully in the hearts of many.

The other project has been only about a week in the making.  A church in western Iowa has an outreach to Hispanics in their rural community and have about 10 to 15 that attend their Sunday morning worship services.  Unfortunately, they don't understand much English and so the sermon has been translated on paper into Spanish so they can follow along as best they can.  Their translator is not available on Saturdays to do this work any longer so I was asked to consider translating the sermons.  My translation skills are not at that level so after discussing an idea with them, I'm going to help Jason translate the sermons and the church will provide some renumeration for his time and effort.  This is expected to be a continuous, weekly project.

This is a great idea as Jason and Kristin struggle to make ends meet on just a few hundred dollars income each month (even while working 60+ hours at the factory).  The factory is slowing down production so there is no overtime now and a few extra dollars each month would really help them out.  Jason is very excited about doing this kind of work.  He has always wanted some experience in translation work and this will give him that.  He also is excited about ministering to Mexican believers in the USA.  How cool is that?

Thanks for praying with us over the ladies' evangelistic tea as well as the translation project to go well and to be a true help and blessing to the brethren in Iowa.

Typical Scene

We've been driving the 35 minutes to our new dentist over in Querétaro every Monday and most Fridays (to finish whatever was started on Monday) for Beth's overdue work on a dozen teeth.  The dentist seems to be doing a good job so seems to be worth the effort to see him.

The drive on the 6 lane highway generally provides us with something interesting to see.  Very rarely do we make the round-trip without seeing at least one car accident.  Today we were almost home when I spotted what appeared to be a tornado.  We have never heard of tornados in this region of Mexico before.  We do have dust devils which can appear to be tornados.  I'm not sure what it was but since there were some very dark clouds in the vicinity (this is dry season so we were noting how nice it was to see some juicy clouds in the area).  I tried to get a photo of it but as I was driving slowly trying to find a good spot to catch it with a photo, there was our one accident scene for the day.  I got photos of that.  I did get one photo that showed the end of whatever it was I saw, but it's very hard to make out.

Tacos!

Tacos al pastor may be the most common type of taco in Mexico.  Any night of the year one can walk or drive around just any downtown of any city or town that I've ever visited and find at least one place making tacos like you see in the picture below.

Recently, we discovered "Pastor Seasoning" at a supermarket.  We had never seen that before, so we bought a box and Beth decided to try making it.  We don't have a "spit" like the normal way of making it, so she tried something different.

Since we really like the flavor of the pineapple (on top of the spit above), she decided to put the thinly-sliced marinated pork (that was slightly broiled first) into a hollowed out pineapple.  She placed this into the oven for about an hour.  After cooking, she chopped up the pork and we ate it in tacos.  We had some leftover mango salsa to put with it.  It turned out really well.  It was less greasy and without the fat and gristle we often get with the normal pastor meat.  We'll probably do this one again!