We are so grateful for your prayers and prayerful support for us. We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for all of you, making it happen. We know that God has called us to Tepeyac and we are so excited about what God is going to do here for His kingdom.
We came to Mexico knowing we had to prepare the small room next to the church to live in. On Saturday several people came to help us remove all the church supplies and clean and paint the room. Blas cemented the holes near the ceiling and with his wife, Paula and Lupita’s daughter, Irene helped paint the walls. It looks so much better, and with the hog-back Greg and Bill put up to support the roof, we have a nice 4”x4” post painted green in the center of the room. Since there are no outlets in the room, I ran an extension cord from the sanctuary and now have our lamp working. I brought lots of things like my crock pot, rice cooker, coffee pot, fan and microwave, but have found that if we have our fan working, the lights dim when I plug in the coffee pot. It got hot today and with no breeze, was somewhat stifling in the room. And the fan helped quite a bit, just moving the air around. For the most part, it has been very nice, and the temperature hasn’t risen above 80.
After church, Blas and Paula came over to put me up a clothesline in the mesquite trees out back. I asked him about the “rocking” outhouse and he said we’ll need to have another hole dug as this hole is disintegrating. The outhouses have been here since the church was built many years ago. We were pretty sure we’d have to replace them so I guess that will be our first project.
After working on the clothesline Sunday evening, Blas asked if we wanted to drive to Palmira to see his brother, Reymundo, and his family, so we all got in our pickup and drove to visit. Reymundo wasn’t there but his wife and sons were there, along with some other friends. The boys, Jesus and Isaac, were tending the sheep and bringing them home to corral, and I asked if I could take some pictures. Reymundo’s sons attended the VBS in July.
Tomorrow we plan to take Blas and Paula to San Carlos after I wash clothes, and we will get a few groceries. Our refrigerator is empty except for tea, water and ice cubes, and we have been eating canned goods that Paula has been nice enough to cook for us. We have to wait for the propane man to come through town so we can get fuel for the stove. Hopefully, he’ll come through town tomorrow. It has been nice to have meals with Blas and Paula. She makes my canned food taste much better with her additions of jalapenos, onions and garlic. It seems a shame to plug in an empty refrigerator.
We actually do go to bed with the hens and get up with the roosters here…and it’s healthier for us, I think. I know we have been catching up on lost sleep. Bill enjoys his siesta in the middle of the day, but he’s been doing that for years! He woke me up this morning with “Que hora es, mi miel?” (What time is it, my Honey?) Already learning that Spanish….He had been calling me his husband (esposo) and I keep correcting him it’s esposa, but he calls me husband anyway. So”miel” is an improvement!
Bill and I both shared Sunday in church, and Blas told us he had been praying for many years that God would bring someone to get them motivated and to bring the gospel to Tepeyac. He said he just didn’t know they would come from the “otro lado.” (The other side of the border.)
I guess the mosquitoes have also anticipated our arrival. We sure have lots of them in our little room. It is amazing there are any mosquitoes as they have been in a drought just like Texas. Although, I must say, the mosquitoes don’t seem as fat and healthy here. One blessing is that the water in town comes from a well nearby and they tell us the water is clean, and everyone here drinks it. Since we ran out of purified water, I trust the water IS clean. It comes on for a few hours three times a day, so we shouldn’t have any trouble with water. We are planning to build a bathroom with a shower and hook-up for the washer. We talked to Blas about it and he told us what we would need, and that for a little less than $500., we should be able to build it. It sure would be a blessing.
We’ve already invited several people to church. Bill brought a neighbor, Javier, a cup of coffee Sunday morning. Javier and his family have tractors and do farm work, so Bill wanted to talk to him when he got up.
Our dogs have been enjoying all the dogs in the neighborhood. The funniest thing happened our first day here when we visited Blas and Paula. Tootie and Max chased their baby chicken all over the yard. I told Blas I was sorry if our dogs bothered the chicken, and he said the chicken was glad because our dogs were small, and just gave it some exercise.
I was concerned about our dogs, but there were four other dogs inside the church Sunday morning. This morning, Bill and I sat out back of the church and enjoyed watching the animals next door. There is a cow, several horses, lots of chickens and turkeys. It’s so peaceful and nice here. Lots of mesquite trees and lots of dirt….very much like West Texas. Nearly every home has horses, goats or cows.
We are so grateful for your prayer support for us, and as smooth as the trip went coming down here, we know that God answered prayers. It was an amazingly smooth trip for us. We stopped in Sonora and stayed the night in a motel, enjoying a meal at the Sonic there. I caught up on email and we left out a little later than we had planned, but all went well at the border in Del Rio. We paid $61. US for our belongings (they estimated the value at $500. and we had to pay 16% taxes on it to the aduana (customs). We were so elated when we finally drove through Acuña,
If I could describe my emotional state since arriving here in Tepeyac, I would have to say it’s near unto elation. For so many years, I have felt we were supposed to be back in Mexico serving the Lord on the mission field. Having a husband like Bill who is ready at a moment’s notice to preach the gospel, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead and cast out demons makes a woman want to get on about the Father’s business, and go into all the world. What a privilege to serve alongside someone who is a fisher of men like Bill is. God is so good, and we are so blessed to finally be here. Sorry it took us so long to get moved …. The last few weeks, Bill has been singing, “I shall not be moved,” in an effort to get me motivated. I just had to dematerialize, and when I see how much I tossed and gave away, and yet how much remains, it makes me wonder if I REALLY dematerialized that much. We have so much and they have so little. Even with our modest belongings, it’s way more than the average family has here.
This morning, Bill took a thermos of coffee over to visit Lupita and her husband. They tried to visit but finally Bill came back to get me. I wanted to get the wash done while the water was running but went over and we had breakfast with Lupita, her husband, her daughter Irene and granddaughter, Yadira. It was nice and the homemade flour tortillas were the thing I missed the most about meals in Mexico. Lupita told us all about the history of the church, and I enjoyed hearing the stories. She told Bill he’ll learn Spanish faster if he eats chilis. So he enjoyed some of her homemade hot green salsa on his eggs and potatoes. I had to drink a glass of water to stop the burning in my mouth!
We are heading to San Carlos so I hope I can get this sent by email to you. The snail mail will have to wait until we make it across the border. I’ll upload the newsletter on our Tepeyac blog site so you can read it there, also.
We love you and we thank the Lord for you. We hope to keep in touch as we serve here, and we hope that you’ll come visit us here. We know that you’ll be touched, as we have been, by the lives of the people here in Tepeyac and in Mexico.
