Homeschool Day

We drove from Wills Point, TX to Memphis on Tuesday and yesterday, Wednesday, we drove to Mammoth Cave National Park.  We made it early enough to take in one of the 2 hour tours.  I think we'll count that as a "science" class.  We learned a bit about the cave system and about some of the historical uses of the cave.  Unfortunately for us, our first family cave experience was last year with Carlsbad.  It's hard to imagine Mammoth Cave not impressing too much, but after seeing the best cave in the USA (arguably), Mammoth wasn't quite the same.  Not complaining though.

A Home Favorite

This tasty little item is called an arrachera burrito.  It's filled with tender bits of flank steak and covered in a cream sauce with bacon and topped with guacamole.  It comes with a side of what is supposed to be "frijoles charros" but seemed closer to chili to me.  Our local restaurant serves these for $60 pesos (about $5).

Typical Pre-Home Assignment Missionary Task

Not sure when I wore these last.  Obviously, I don't need them very often in Mexico.

Home Assignment Trip 2011 - Update 1

Someone this past weekend said something about following our trip updates on our blog and it dawned on me that I guess I'd better get on the stick and start posting trip updates!

Tonight we're safely parked and holed up somewhere in Memphis off of I-40.  No Elvis sightings yet but we're OK with that.  Really.

To sum up the trip so far:

Last Friday we drove up to Laredo, TX and encountered no problems or anything particular to note.  It was a perfectly boring border trip for which we were very grateful.  Thanks for praying us through the war zone.

On Saturday we drove to Dallas and again there was really nothing particular to note.  Somehow we did find ourselves at the Collin Street Bakery store along I-35.  (see here: http://www.collinstreet.com/)  My mother should be in for a very nice birthday present any day now.  If you don't know this bakery, it makes the best fruit cakes in the world.  I know what you're thinking, but speaking of fruit cakes, I can assure you that I am no where near as good as these are.  :-)  I am not actually a fan of fruit cake but these really are tasty.  I didn't taste any though.  Too expensive!  Upon arrival in Dallas, we even made it to Kohls to look for some decent clothes for the boys to wear at our church visits.  Nothing like clothes shopping after driving 1,100 miles.

By Sunday we were ready to crash and enjoyed some extra sleep.  We ended up needing to continue our search for clothes and shoes for the boys.  We finally came up with what we were looking for, or at least close enough.  It sure took enough stores!  

A quick trip through Half-Price Books apparently was necessary to come up with some books for the rest of the trip.  Dayton was disappointed to not find any books he was looking for.  He did find a Hank the Cowdog book but it was a hardback version and we weren't about to pay $7.50 for a used, hardback Hank book.  Interestingly, a teenage gal was looking for a book in the section we were perusing.  I helped her get a book off the top of the shelves but it wasn't the book she was looking for.  A few minutes later as I told Dayton that I guess we hadn't found a book that he could get, this gal shoved a crumpled $10 bill into his hand and said, "Here.  You get that book."  We stood there barely able to say "thank-you" and she was gone.  It was an odd moment but for whatever reason this gal wanted to gift Dayton with a very nice "random act of kindness."

Yesterday, we packed it in and headed out to Wills Point, TX for a visit with our co-workers and former co-San Juan-ites, the Yingling family.  What a treat to spend some time with our good friends.

That pretty much sums up the trip to this moment.  Not terribly exciting stuff.  That's OK too.  We're glad to be on our way and to be knocking out some miles and finally out of Texas.

Tomorrow we have a shorter drive that sets us up for a quick Thursday visit to see Mammoth Cave National Park.  We really don't have any other visits like this one planned on our schedule so we're looking forward to an educational element to our travel.  I haven't been to Mammoth Cave for many years, perhaps since when I was a kid about Dayton's age.  It will be great to take them to a place I remember from my own childhood.

Check back soon for Update 2.  I suspect I'll get some photos to add soon.  Wedding on Saturday!

The Trip

As we do every other year, we are about to take a brief home assignment.  It's a great time to share what the Lord has been doing in our lives and ministry here in Mexico and to catch up with what God is doing in the lives of friends and family back in the USA as well.  This one will be about 2 months in length and will cover about 10,000 miles in about 10 weeks.  It's a lot of driving.  It's exhausting.  It's worth it.

We will conclude the trip with Thanksgiving in Florida with my parents.  It's the first time since 1995 that we've enjoyed Thanksgiving with any of my family.  Christmas has been even longer.  But, Thanksgiving was the holiday we always enjoyed the most as a "family holiday."  To make it even better, all four of my siblings are planning to be there too.  The last time that happened was also in 1995.  Our boys will get their first taste of Thanksgiving with the McManus tribe.  It will be a special time.

In case you're wondering where we'll be heading, here is the general outline.  A few details have yet to be determined as we're waiting on a few replies, but overall this came together very quickly and many pieces to this trip fit together as only God could make happen.  It's really amazing to watch Him work!

ITINERARY

9/23-24 – Drive to Dallas

9/26 – Wills Point, TX

9/30-10/2 – New Albany, IN

10/3-10-9 – Dayton, TN

10/9 – Westminster PCA, Dayton, TN

10/10-12 – Griffin & Stone Mountain, GA

10/13 – Pickens, SC

10/14 – Beckley, WV

10/15-19 – Bethel Baptist, Parkersburg, WV

10/21-23 – Traverse City, MI

10/23 – Rollins Christian Fellowship, Manton, MI

10/24-25 – Travel MI to IA

10/26-28 – Atlantic, IA

10/30 – TBD (IL*)

10/31-11/3 – Chesterton, IN

11/6 – Linn Chapel, Grafton, WV

11/7-10 – Glenmoore, PA

11/12-13 – Mifflin, OH

11/13am – Little Flock Fellowship, Mifflin, OH*

11/13pm – Cornerstone Community, Millersburg, OH*

11/14-11/18 – TBD (family rest)

11/19 – Xenia, OH

11/20 – Calvary Grace Brethren, Kettering, OH

11/23-28 – DeLand, FL

12/2-3 – Dallas, TX

12/4-5 – Drive to Home

* - tentative

(missing dates are travel days)

If you're in our path and would like to catch up with us (and we haven't already arranged to do so), send an email or something and let us know where you are and how to reach you.  Our schedule is pretty tight in most places but something might work out.  We always want to make the most of these trips and we hope we can see everyone we possibly can.  If you follow this blog, you probably know everything we have to share, but in person, we can share a cup of coffee, some fellowship, some laughs, and a hug and prayer too.

As always we'd greatly appreciate your prayers for our travels.  We do have some dangerous spots to drive through here in Mexico and while we take precautions with our planning and actions, we always find that section to be a little stressful.  Nonetheless, the risks are in God's hands not ours and He is with us at all times no matter what may befall us.  

I just was reading with the boys tonight "Paul's Boast" to the Corinthians as part of our annual reading plan.  It is amazing to read of some of what Paul endured for Christ, the sake of the Gospel, and the benefit of many others.  It was a fitting reminder that we would be expected to do no less for the same Christ, the same Gospel, and likewise for the benefit of others.

I don't mean to sound melodramatic.  The trip is almost always uneventful.  I mentioned to a friend tonight that it's probably the only time we travel when we pray for a boring trip.  We really want have no desire to see any danger in our path.  Praise God He is in control and He is in front, behind, and beside us!

Church Van!

We're so thankful to have this "new" van.  What a blessing to comfortably fit three families in it!  Of course, this probably wouldn't be acceptable in the USA but here in Mexico, to have 10 people in a 7 passenger van is still considered about half full!  Beth's mom recently told us that one of the young couples from her church had something like 16 people in their compact car.  Yikes!

Today was our house church's first time to meet at the home of our co-workers, Tim & Michelle O'Brien.  We have been meeting here in our house for over 2 years, but with our rapidly approaching home assignment (we leave THIS Friday!), the group needs to meet at their home.  So Jason and Kristin and their son arrived here and piled in with us in the van.  We then drove to the center of town and picked up Emmanuel and Mari Cruz and their toddler.  We didn't have to go more than a couple miles so it was a short trip.

Tim decided to include the children in the music time so we began with an "old hymn" entitled "Pharaoh, Pharaoh."  The kids and adults had fun with that one!  Ha-ha...not to worry, we did sing a couple of serious songs too.

Mari Cruz shared with the group how the Lord had given her several opportunities in the past few weeks to talk with a neighbor in their cramped little housing community and how this past Tuesday after 3 hours of talking, Imelda prayed to receive Christ as her Savior.  Imelda has some sort of class she is taking on Sundays but when her commitment finishes, she plans to join with us on Sundays.  We sure pray and hope that this does happen.  We'll have to figure out how to fit one more in the van!

I wrapped up our study of Ephesians 3 with my stammering Spanish.  It's going to be even worse when we get back from being away for 2 months.  I'll have to find some Spanish-speakers when we're in the USA to help me from forgetting my bad Spanish!

After church, the 5 ladies (Kristin, Mari Cruz, Jenny, Michelle & Beth) went out to a restaurant for lunch together and enjoyed a couple hours of fellowship.  Jason, Emmanuel, Javier, Tim, and I came over to our house and cooked up some hamburgers and hot dogs and fed ourselves and our 10 hungry kids!  (we were missing one of our families with 3 more kids too!)

When the O'Briens returned home late this afternoon, a neighbor lady, who at one time was attending a home Bible study with another missionary (Bev Kendal) who lived in the same house as the O'Briens, asked them if meetings were being held in their home on Sundays now.  So, another invitation has been extended and we'll see if this woman joins in the coming on Sundays as well.  She seemed very interested.

God is blessing.  God is working.  God is good. 

Jesus Junkie - From Addict to Pusher

Our Wednesday evening Bible study wasn't the same without Emmanuel to join with us and his wife Mari Cruz.  He was over in Nogales (the small community where his parents and Jason and Kristin live) visiting with his mother who had eye surgery yesterday in Mexico City and had come home today.  She suffers from diabetes and had lost the sight in one of her eyes some time ago but then suddenly went blind in the other eye (which wasn't working too well).  They have hope that the costly laser procedure will restore some level of vision in the eye that just went blind.

Anyway, we didn't know it would be just Mari Cruz there for our study time.  She started off by telling us that she had an interesting experience to tell us about.  Turns out that Mari Cruz has befriended a neighbor, Imelda.  Imelda is 21 and single.  She left her home in a nearby town in order to be "independent."  She works somewhere in town and comes back to her one room apartment which is filled by one small bed.  That's it.  She has no other furniture.  I doubt very much more would fit in it.

Yesterday was Imelda's day off.  She had nothing else to do so she came over and while Mari Cruz was ironing, they began a 3 hour conversation that centered around God.  By the end, Mari Cruz had pulled out the little blue "el ABC de la Vida" ("the ABCs of life") tract which I shared and left with Emmanuel and Mari Cruz on our very first study with them back in late June.  Mar Cruz led her through the tract and the prayer to receive Christ!  How cool is that?!?  Praise God!

After our study, Mari Cruz share some of her life's story with us.  She's also only 21 years old but we were glued to her story as she told us just a few little pieces of her childhood.  She was abused as a child.  First, at a very young age her father tried to kill her while in a drunken rage.  She was too young to even remember this on her own.  Some years later her grandfather tried to abuse her sexually.  As a teenager she tried to commit suicide.

In their effort to try to help her, Mari Cruz's parents sent her to live with two doctors who were psychologists.  In God's sovereign and perfect way, these doctors were believers.  They took her in and not long after, Mari Cruz prayed to receive Jesus Christ as her Savior!

She eventually returned home.  However, she wanted to join in the small Sunday morning church service with the doctors.  This was a problem.  Mari Cruz's parents are very Catholic.  She told us her mother is so Catholic that it "runs in her blood."  They would never consent to her being a believer in anything but Catholicism.  Furthermore, they would not allow her to fail to go to the Sunday morning mass.  So, she had to tell them that she was going to do "homework" with friends.  Of course, what she meant was, studying the Bible...which was "homework" of sorts!  So, she would go to mass at 9 a.m., run to "homework with friends" at 10 a.m. and be there for both the two hours of services.

Her family knew, of course, but they apparently decided not to press the issue and she continued until she met and married Emmanuel.  Her life took a dramatic turn at that point, three years ago.  She didn't have any spiritual input, Emmanuel didn't have any spiritual interest and she strayed in her walk with the Lord.  It wasn't until this summer that God changed her life and his too.

There's more to the story but I really can't share all of it.  However, I hope you'll pray for Emmanuel and Mari Cruz.  Pray for Jason and Emmanuel's parents...their salvation.  Pray for their mother's sight to be restored as a result of this surgery.  Pray for Imelda and that her profession of faith is real.  She has a Sunday obligation for some time to come, but eventually we hope that she'll come with Emmanuel and Mari Cruz to our small house church.  We're anxious to meet this new creation in Christ!  (we probably won't get to meet her until after our home assignment...maybe in December we'll meet Imelda) 

¡VIVA MEXICO!

Cultural Correctness (or Incorrectness)

As suggested by the commonly offered product in Mexican grocery stores pictured below, "cultural correctness" varies greatly between cultures.  What one culture may find offensive, another culture finds the same thing as humorous or simply "normal."  There are probably many examples of American culture that is greatly offensive to the Mexican culture and vice versa.  Understanding that this is the case and that generally speaking, these differences are not meant to intentionally offend is an important part of accepting the diversity of cultures around the world, and especially our neighboring cultures.

I've never actually tasted a "Negrito."  I'm told it's a hot dog bun covered in chocolate.  It may also have a chocolate filling.  They don't look appetizing to me nor does it sound appetizing.  I think you can see where this product, in both name and packaging, would be ill-advised for the American market and its cultural sensitivities.  

I don't know what you think of these, but maybe we'll just have to taste them to find out!  (I hope not!)

The Real Chamoy

from Wikipedia: 

Chamoy refers to a variety of savory sauces and condiments in Mexican cuisine made from pickled fruit. Chamoy may range from a liquid to a paste consistency, and typically its flavor is salty, sweet, sour and spiced with powdered chiles all at the same time.

Our Costco in Querétaro, instead of caramel or candied apples, sells apples covered in chamoy.  I've never had the opportunity to try one, but I'm sure to someone who likes chamoy, they're quite good.  That probably wouldn't include me.  :-)  

(I would be happy to try one though!)

Meeting a Mexican Missionary

Today, our Sunday house church didn't meet.  Rather we drove across town to join with the Abundant Life Bible Church which was hosting a visit from Al (not his real name) [surname withheld for security reasons] who is a Mexican missionary to [a sensitive region].  Al and his family have been in [a sensitive region] now for a few years.  It was great to visit the church (we haven't been there for a service in over 2 years) and to hear Al speak and share an update on their initial experiences in [a sensitive region].  No doubt it has been a real challenge for them.  Praise God for keeping them safe and on the field there through their first term and for preparing them for a return to [a sensitive region].

I wanted our Sunday participants to have a first-hand introduction to missions from the perspective another Mexican.  Missions is not just Americans ministering in Mexico, but rather believers all over the world ministering...all over the world!  I also am hoping that as our group develops and matures that we'll exercise the discipline of giving offerings and that perhaps our group will decide to become supporters of this family as they minister where God has sent them.  We'll see.

Following the service, Beth and I spent the afternoon ministering to a couple who are going through a very difficult situation.  Their teenage son has decided to leave home in the manner of a prodigal and they are dealing with a range of emotions.  We listened to them over lunch.  The dad is truly heartbroken.  He nearly wept while giving thanks for the meal.  The mom is hurt and perhaps angry.  There is more to the story than I can share and more than I know.  We prayed with them.  We've known this family since we first arrived here in San Juan in 2005 and know them as well as any of our Mexican brethren.  It's a very tough thing.

Perhaps you could pray with us for a prodigal son (Christian), a broken father (Juan), and a wounded mother (Carmen).  They really could use your prayers.

Pray also for Al and family that God will continue to use them in [a sensitive region] and that they will be encouraged from their final days home in Mexico and ready to return to the blessings and challenges of ministering in [a sensitive region].