Today, in the USA (NOT in Canada), CAM International changed its name to Camino Global.

What does this mean?

Well, for today, it means that if you want to write a cheque (check) in $US to support the ministry here, you will send it to Camino Global in Dallas and you will make it out to Camino Global.

Things like the new US website and all stuff like that there will be rolling out little by little in the weeks and months ahead.

For more information about making donations in $US, read here.

Now, what about CAM International of Canada?  Well, CAM International of Canada is still CAM International of Canada.

So any cheques made out in $CA, and sent to the Canadian office, can and should still be made out to CAM International of Canada.

CAM International of Canada will be Camino Global as well, but that change won’t likely come until sometime in the summer.  We’ll keep you informed.

Meanwhile, if you would like to donate in $CA, here’s the info.

Thanks for your patience!  We’re all hoping the confusion will be over with soon.

Believe it or not, we are on our way to Canada!  But we’ll only be there a few days.

Since returning to Mexico in November, we’ve been working on issues related to our visas.  A number of things have changed, and so we’ve basically been starting from scratch with a number of documents.

Our work on this has been in some ways a comedy of errors.  Emails didn’t arrive, information was lost, there were meetings about things that don’t concern us and yet impacted some document somewhere, changes in Mexican law…

The work goes on, as we try to get documents from Canada and documents from Mexico and figure out legal issues.

To make a long story short, our visas are expiring and we are required to leave the country – and then come back.

It’s not what we would have chosen.  However, we can see some good things in all this.

First of all, we will be able to briefly visit Shari’s parents and my parents.  Obviously this is not something we are able to do very often!

Secondly, we do have some business to do in Canada, and this may actually save us a trip down the road.  So we’ll try to make the most of our time and deal with some things while we’re there.

Some of the things we’re planning to do should actually save us some money, so thankfully it’s not a 100% drain on the wallet!

As an added bonus, we get to see our Mothers right around Mother’s Day, and the Grandparents get to see the Grandkids right around their birthdays!

So we’re off for a few days.  If you think of it, do pray for us as this will be a challenging trip in many ways.  Also, pray for our visa situation.  We had an encouraging meeting on Monday, and hope that we’ll be able to get the final documents in order very soon.

All right, gotta run.  We have a plane to catch.

Be prepared to be a little confused.

There are currently two CAM Internationals.  There’s CAM International based in the USA, and there’s CAM International of Canada based in Canada.

They work together, but they’re actually separate organizations.

Both are planning to change their name – to Camino Global.

The time line, however, will be different for both.

At CAM International in the USA, the name change will take place on the 21st of May.  However, the name change is, in reality, a process.  If you’re writing cheques (checks) to CAM, for example, you will continue to write them to CAM International until further notice.  The office is working on getting all the paperwork changed, but these things take a lot of time.

CAM International of Canada will not be changing its name this month.  The process is much more involved in Canada, so the name will stay the same for a while longer.  Nothing will change as far as donations are concerned.

More information about donating to our ministry can be found here.

We will try to keep you up to date on this process.  Thanks for your patience and understanding!

The earthquake you heard about and some others that you didn’t – a glimpse into this week and the coming week.

I’m doing some updates on the site, so I wanted to make sure those of you on our Support Team (if you get our newsletter, that’s you!) could find the information they needed quickly.  So I made up this little page.

Just trying to make things easier to find.

Oh, I threw up this page too.

In Sunday we were in Arizona, planning to cross the border the following day.  We were meeting someone to cross with Monday afternoon.

But Sunday evening we received an email – their vehicle had broken down.  So the plans began to change.

From there on in, in phone calls and emails, plans changed . . . and changed . . . and changed again . . . and again . . . and yet again!

Our friends were very gracious (very) and eventually things were organized.

In the end, instead of going Monday, we ended up going Tuesday.  Now, this cost us an extra night in a hotel.  But it was a nice hotel to get stuck in.  And more notable, I was sick Monday – very sick (migraine attack).  So it did remind us that God is in control of these things.  Crossing the border Monday would have been pretty difficult for me in the shape I was in!

On Tuesday our friend came with another friend (who had a reliable vehicle) and we met them and then crossed the border.

Once again I should report – since so many of you were praying – this was the smoothest crossing into Mexico ever.  In fact, all our border crossings this trip have been super-smooth.

The biggest hitch came when I simply forgot a couple of documents in the van and had to run back to get them.  No big deal.  We had nothing searched, paid no duty on anything . . . and a couple of times when we were sure we would have to stop (for inspections, customs, etc), we were able to roll right on through.  The officials we talked to were friendly and in good moods.  We even met some people while we waited in line in various places – even a couple of Saskatchewanionians.

So – here we are!  Safe and sound in the Sonora desert, in the city of Hermosillo, as of yesterday.

The only change now is that, instead of staying here two nights, we’re heading out today.

Oh, and more good news – our friends were able to repair their vehicle.

So there’s lots of driving in Mexico yet to come!  So we’d better get on with it.  Thanks again to those who have been praying – God has been good!  And if you want to pray as we continue to travel, that would be great!

Tonight we stop – and we’ll be enjoying a day of rest from driving tomorrow – not too far from the US/MX border.  It’s our second day in Arizona.

Can you believe it though – we’re not even done 60% of our trip south yet!  Yes, Mexico is another BIG country.

In fact, it’s even longer to go when you consider that we’re just stopping home then heading out for a team retreat and then a conference.  So we really don’t get home – really home – until the 26th of November

We were able to stop mid-trip today to get a headlight replaced, so that’s one repair out of the way.  And we finished our drive a little earlier today – and we’re REALLY looking forward to actually getting a little sleep!

Thanks for your prayers.  We’re more than half-way home!

Nathanael in the snow this morning.
The freezing temperatures have followed us
up until this afternoon!

So, the damage from our little mishap with the deer on Wednesday comes to about $1700. Now, if you know much about these things, you know that’s nothin’.

On the other hand, with thousands in unexpected expenses in 2011, it doesn’t feel like nothin’. But the good news is there doesn’t seem to be major engine or body damage.

The driver’s door was jammed shut, but the mechanic was able to do a temporary fix, and wrench things into place. So – joy! I can now get out without climbing on the other seats!

Some body work will need to be done, and a new headlight. Amazingly enough, the bulb still works, although the one headlight was smashed.

We had also discovered soon before driving down that our trailer tires were on their last legs, so we got them switched and headed out – quite late – on Day 3 of the drive down.

We’ve arrived- quite late- at our destination. Good night!

Actually, everything went very smoothly today except for one thing.  You guessed it – we hit a deer.

The good news is (and actually there was a lot of good news today) that we were just leaving a town and driving slow.  And, of course, when I saw the deer, I drove slower and slower.

As I was driving slower and slower, the deer was trying to decide if it should stop (good choice), turn (pretty good choice), or go out in front of the van (bad choice).  It chose unwisely.

So we hit it on the drivers’ side.  But we’re all fine – as I said, I was going pretty slowly at this point.

The deer?  Well, it lived and got away.  I’m afraid we weren’t able to find out just how badly off it was.

The van?  Well, we were able to keep driving all the way to our hotel.  But some repairs are going to be needed.  A headlight was smashed, and just how extensive the body damage is we’re not sure.

We’re hoping to take it in tomorrow and have it checked out, so we would appreciate your prayers that we can get it checked out and dealt with in a timely fashion.

The good news?  Well, you already read some of it, didn’t you?  Everyone is fine, the kids are in bed, and we’re thankful that the Lord protected us.  We also had a very uneventful border crossing today, and the rest of the trip went quickly and smoothly.

What happens next?  Well, it depends on what the mechanics say, if we can find any tomorrow.  We’ll be playing it by ear.

What can I say?  Another day in the life . . .

Oh, sure, sometimes we have some interesting adventures driving to and from Mexico.  But a lot of the things we have to worry about just aren’t that interesting.

For example, since we’re driving from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan down to Arizona, we suddenly realized we had a problem.  Prince Albert supposedly has a low of -8C (18F) today.  It’s going to be up to 24C (75F) in Phoenix this week.  That means that things left in the van and trailer will both freeze – and melt.

So we had to rearrange some things – make boxes for things that couldn’t freeze, boxes for things that couldn’t melt, and boxes of things that couldn’t melt or freeze.

How silly is that.

Of course we’re thinking of what paperwork we need for two different border crossings.  And we have to have clothes handy for warm and cool weather.  We need to have places to stop, places to eat, and we need to make sure we can do laundry during the trip and get enough rest to survive.

Of course our new van has its own quirks.  We have discovered that we have no air conditioning.  Usually not a problem in more moderate Ixtapaluca, but every once in a while…

But unlike our old van, we don’t have to worry about the loud whistling noise it makes when we get up to highway speed (we stuck a wad of paper in the window to cut down on the noise).  We don’t have to worry about the rear view mirror falling off when we go over a bump.  Every door opens without having to do a special yank-and-dance.  We don’t have a whole bunch of warning lights on the dash – in fact, at the moment, we don’t have any!  The CD player even works – imagine!

We would appreciate your prayers as we travel down – we’ll settle for dull drama, and not the more exciting kind, this time.  Seriously, we’ve had more than enough excitement lately.

Tomorrow is our first border crossing, and Lord willing Monday we’ll be in Mexico.  A long way to go – but we’re well on our way.