Yikes, almost been a month since I've posted!  I hadn't realized so much time had passed...we've had a busy month with several different activities, including a women's retreat, a quick trip to Mexico City to renew Jkaile's U.S. passport and Jojo's birthday!  I think the highlight of the last few weeks, however, was the trip we made to the towns of Ixtepec and Cuetzalan with the Sexton family.  The Sextons are appointees with Pioneers and were on their vision trip to scout out the different PI teams in Mexico to see where God might be leading them to work in the future.

Town of Ixtepec

And of course, they couldn't really get to know what our ministry is about unless they made a visit to some Totonacan communities in the mountains, which we were happy to show them! We chose to take them to visit Miguel and Magdalena and family in Ixtepec, where we spent two nights before spending the day at the Coffee Festival in the town of Cuetzalan.

We had so many experiences in those three short days, it would be hard to describe it all here in one post, but I will try to highlight the important parts...or at least the parts that I thought were most interesting!

Miguel had visited Ixtepec before, but this was my first time there.  I really hit it off with Magdalena and we ended up talking until late that first night we were there, as we shared our hearts with each other.  The conversation continued the next day as she showed us around town (the guys had all gone to Mr. Miguel's garden). I was honored that she was so open with me about her life experiences and I shared back with her about some of mine.

Magdalena preparing corn tortillas

Miguel and Magdalena with a Proclaimer

(audio Scripture device)...it has the New Testament

in their Totonacan dialect

The next day, we were invited to eat at another family's house and they served us each a large piece of fried pork with black beans and freshly made corn tortillas...which was humbling because their house is very small, has a dirt floor, and the walls are made out of 'carrizo', which are cornstalks woven together.

The next day, this family also bought us a bunch of cookies for our trip home! We had a great time at their house, Miguel shared some thoughts on Bible storytelling with the family, the kids chased chickens and saw their bunnies and Micah found a meteorite!

After lunch, we visited another family who lived a ways out of town where Jojo had an interesting experience in their outhouse...he had to go while we were there, but the outhouse was even more primitive than usual and just had a hole with nothing to sit on.  Once he figured out how to use it, we realized we had forgotten to bring the toilet paper with us from the van.  After some thought, the kids decided to give him some banana leaves!  Then Jkaile thought it would be fun to wipe with banana leaves as well, but to his great disappointment, he couldn't produce anything that needed wiping! Boys...

I didn't get any pictures during that visit because I was busy practicing the Bible story that I was to present in the Miguel and Magdalena's church that night. The people consider us to be something like pastors, even though we've tried to avoid having that image, so when they heard we were coming, they asked if we would speak at their church (they are without a full-time pastor right now). We agreed, but decided to present the teaching in a Bible story format with Miguel presenting part of it and me the other.

My part was to share the story of the birth and life of John the Baptist and I was having trouble remembering all of it, particularly the parts that contained prophecy about Jesus. I also struggle a bit to remember the stories when I present them in Spanish, which obviously is my second language.  So I was practicing the story when Magdalena informed me that they would be translating it to Totonacan during the service...I didn't know that, so I asked her to help me practice it with a 'live' translation. She did that for me and then she told me that since she liked the story so much, she wanted to translate for me in church that night, even though she wasn't the 'designated' translator!  I was pleased because I had enjoyed working with her and I think we make a great team.

It seemed like the people enjoyed the story that we presented.  We're just beginning to learn more about oral communication principles and how to put them in practice. These concepts are definitely new for the Totonacans.  Traditionally, they are an oral culture, but oral communication principles have not been used much in church settings. We're in the process of exploring how oral communication principles could be used in evangelization and discipleship in the Totonacan context and we're excited about the possibilities because so far, they are responding positively. But that is a whole other topic for another day...

It was hard to say goodbye to Miguel and Magdalena the next day, but we hope to go back to visit soon!  The town of Cuetzalan is not too far from Ixtepec, but the roads were quite twisty and sure enough, some of us were getting a bit carsick! At one point, Jojo threw up quite violently and we had to pull over to get him cleaned up (I even had to wash his hair!). Fortunately, we quickly found a place where someone had built a small tank to hold the water being piped down the hill.  It was there, basically out in the boonies, that we met a man who spoke English because he had lived in New York for many years!  You just never know who you will run into!

We finally got to Cuetzalan, where we planned to enjoy the last day of the Coffee Festival (and yes, I bought some coffee, about 3 pounds of whole beans).  The sights were quite enjoyable as there were many traditional Totonacan dancers there from many different towns participating in the traditional ceremonies and rituals.

 Totonacan 'voladores' (flyers) performing

in front of the Catholic church

Colorful dancers

Religious procession taking saints 

and other images into the church

Lots of Totonacans in traditional dress

Cool shops

We liked Cuetzalan a lot and we felt like we didn't get enough time to really explore as we'd have liked...there are some caves, waterfalls and ruins in the area that we'd like to go see sometime.  Every time we go to the mountains, it seems like it's getting harder and harder to come home...I think we'd like to make one of these mountain communities our home!

The town of Nanacatlán

On the way home, we caught a glimpse of Orizaba at sunset, truly a breathtaking sight!  Orizaba is the highest peak in all of Mexico and is often covered in clouds, so we were thrilled to catch these pictures.

*Other links from this trip...Gracia writes about the animals we saw and Jkaile is impressed by the pig.

Spiritual Survival

I began reading a book this weekend called Spiritual Survival Handbook for Cross-Cultural Workers written by Dr. Robert S. Miller.  It's really good.  It's not a very long book, but there is a lot of wisdom in these pages.  I don't think that just cross-cultural workers would benefit from this book, however, I think that anyone who desires a closer walk with God would be blessed and encouraged by what Dr. Miller has to share.


From the table of contents, the chapter titles are as follows:

1. Know Your God
2. Know Yourself
3. Know Your Enemy
4. Know the Terrain
5. Know Your Boundaries
6. Know How to Lead
7. Know Your Mission

Epilogue:  Remember the Joy of the Lord


So far, I've read into chapter two, but am finding myself reading too fast and I want to slow down to really soak in what I'm learning.  I've been thinking about some things that I read in chapter 1, Know Your God.  


"So much of what I've learned about survival in ministry is based on the following statement, "Inward before outward; secret before public."  You must win the battle within your own person if you are to survive in ministry."  

Let the river flow into your heart

"There is a river that proceeds from fellowship with the Spirit, a river that waters your thirsty life.  The flow of this river is dependent upon your heart's posture before the Lord.  A subtle shift will cause the flow to pause or even stop.  Without that life-giving river, your heart will become a desert."


"There are times when we attempt to minister apart from this flow.  Such a condition is so prevalent that we can become accustomed to it and think it is normal.  After all, no one is perfect; we're all human.  But the sobering truth is that a missionary that is evangelizing, discipling or church planting apart from abiding in the Spirit may as well be playing the role of a missionary in a Hollywood film.  We cannot give what we do not have.  Without the living water, there is no living, vital ministry."


"How long does it take for a heart to become an arid desert?  Not years and not even months.  Guard your heart daily."


I've been pondering these words all day...it is so easy for my heart to become that desert and I've even lived there at times.  But now that I have experienced more and more what it means to have that flow of living water in my heart, I don't want to go back to the desert.  

This topic reminded me of a study I did recently in Jeremiah 17.  Most of us are familiar with verses 7 and 8...

But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,

   whose confidence is in him. 

They will be like a tree planted by the water 

   that sends out its roots by the stream. 

It does not fear when heat comes; 

   its leaves are always green. 

It has no worries in a year of drought 

   and never fails to bear fruit.

But I hadn't really paid much attention to the previous contrasting verses of 5 and 6 until recently...

This is what the LORD says:

   Cursed is the one who trusts in man, 

   who draws strength from mere flesh 

   and whose heart turns away from the LORD. 

That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; 

   they will not see prosperity when it comes. 

They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, 

   in a salt land where no one lives.

The context of these verses is Judah's sin (Jer. 17:1).  Jeremiah 2:13 says,

My people have committed two sins: 

They have forsaken me, 

   the spring of living water, 

and have dug their own cisterns, 

   broken cisterns that cannot hold water. 

The specifics of Judah's and Israel's sin was idolatry and trusting in other nations, pagan nations, to protect them from enemies instead of trusting in God to defend them.  The Israelites even asked Egypt of all countries for help.  Egypt, the very country that had enslaved the Israelites for generations!  Seriously?!    

Hadn't God shown Himself to be trustworthy to His people in the past?  Hadn't He shown them time after time that He could deal with anything man could bring against the Israelites?  Scriptures are full of stories about God miraculously intervening on behalf of His people and  they still turned back to worshiping idols and trusting in man.  

I find it fascinating to see how God describes this sin...forsaking the spring of living water and digging cisterns that could not possibly satisfy their thirst.  

It's easy to sit back and judge the Israelites for abandoning God, but isn't that just what I do?  Trusting in my own strength to get through a tough day or maybe many tough days...thinking that I am strong enough to handle what life brings my way.  Finding other ways to solve my problems without taking them to God first. Letting days go by without really spending time seeking God...letting my heart become dry and dusty, like a bush living in a wasteland.  Trying to give to others what I do not have for myself...failing in the secret places while pretending to succeed in public.  

It's shameful how easy it is for me to forsake my God.

But there is grace...grace that will never fail to renew my heart and bring refreshing rivers of living water back to my soul.  

So these are great reminders about where my spiritual priority should be..."The river of fellowship with your Lord and Savior is the key to your life and your ministry; everything else takes second place....I must spend time with Him.  Not just five or ten minutes.  I must linger with Him.  I need the living water.  I need to know Him and to be known by Him.  If I forgo this priority-one appointment, my heart will become a desert and I will die."

Beggars

These last few weeks have been very busy for us as we are in what we hope to be our last few weeks before leaving for Mexico once again...we are working to raise our support to the level it needs to be in order to leave for the field by the end of July.  We were hoping to go by the end of June, but have had to push that back a month; not really a bad thing, really, just a disappointment, but we're dealing with it.  :) 

So we've been visiting friends, family, supporters and potential supporters, casting our vision for ministry and sharing about our work.  We've either had guests in our home or been guests in somebody else's home just about every single day for about three weeks now...sometimes more than one somebody's home in one day!  On the days that we are home, we've had the challenge of catching up on all the housework we've neglected with all of our busyness...and I don't really want to talk about the pile of dishes over there in the sink.

As is normal with such a busy time, we aren't exactly operating at full capacity since we're getting tired and pulled in many different directions.  We've been handling it fairly well, for the most part, with only some minor issues and conflicts...encouraging for me since I haven't traditionally handled stress all that well in the past. 

So this last Wednesday night, we were driving to our supper appointment which was about 30 minutes away from our house.  About halfway there, Miguel noticed that we were about to run out of gas, so we stopped at a gas station close to our friends' house to fill up.  But when Miguel asked me to give him the cash from my wallet, I discovered that my wallet was not in my purse!  I had taken it out for some reason and hadn't remembered to put it back.

Miguel said, no problem, I'll just use the debit card and went to pull his wallet out of his back pocket.  He got a really funny look on his face, however, as he realized that he didn't have his wallet either!  He had taken a shower right before we'd left and his wallet apparently never made it back into his pocket. 

So there we were, no gas and no way to buy any and 30 minutes from home!  It was rather embarrassing to show up at a supporter's house, enjoy their hospitality, eat their food and then have to ask them for some gas money on top of that!  It was either that or spend the night with them, LOL!  We felt like beggars.  Fortunately, our friends saw the humor in the situation and we all had a good laugh about it...don't think Miguel will be able to live that one down very soon, though. 

Okay, gotta go clean up the house a bit...we've got company coming for supper!  I'm making arepas and fried plantains...hope they like Venezuelan food!

Say What?

You would think that as fluent as I am in Spanish (even though there's so much more for me to learn!), that I would have little trouble communicating in most situations that do not involve highly technical language. And yet, there are these little incidents that remind me that communication foul-ups are still bound to happen...they also keep me humble!

I wanted to add some squash to a soup I was cooking the other day, so I ran over to one of our local stores a few blocks down the street. The store is one of the bigger ones in the neighborhood, about the size of a small convenience store...they sell a variety of vegetables and fruits, meats, dairy products, snacks, grocery and household items, and also things like chile relleno (stuffed chilies) and frijoles (cooked pinto beans sold in bags). I looked over the vegetable counter, but no squash.

I decided to buy a gallon of milk and a couple of other things and while paying, I asked if they had calabaza, squash. One of the two ladies there, said sure! Right over here...but it turned out to be small, zuchini-like squash commonly called calabazín...not what I wanted. So I asked them if they had any other kind of calabaza.

Results...blank looks. I began to describe it, you know, it's big (motioning with hands)...a lot larger than these calabazín, green on the outside, orange inside, you can toast the seeds to eat? Again, blank looks.

Then the first lady said, oh, papaya? No, I said, usually you eat it in soups...the other lady then exclaimed chayote! I was getting kind of frustrated at this point because papaya is not related to calabaza at all and it's not common to toast the seeds to eat. And chayote isn't large or even orange inside!

I had pretty much given up all hope of successful communication and was feeling like a very silly gringa who can't talk right, when the first lady said, oh, calabaza! No, no, we don't have any.

Sigh.

fellow missionaries

Today we had lunch with an older couple who spent quite a few years in Venezuela as missionaries with TEAM.  Their son and his family go to our church, which is how we met them.  We ended up spending all afternoon at their house, it was so good to share experiences with someone who knows Venezuela!  They had lived in a different part of the country and had a different ministry focus, but felt that common bond that is usually there between fellow missionaries.  I really respect this couple, they are in their 70s, I believe, but are still going strong in their ministry to Hispanics through their church.  They truly have so much to offer younger missionaries like us because they have so much experience and wisdom to share!  I hope that we can spend more time with them in the future and maybe some of that wisdom will rub off on us!  We need all we can get!