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Prayer and Praise

Men’s Retreat 2009 (video)

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This past Friday to Saturday our church hosted a men’s retreat in the Paso de Cortés, the mountain pass between two of Mexico’s famous volcanoes, Popocatépetl and Ixtaccíhuatl.  16 men were there, not as many as we had hoped for, but I think everyone enjoyed it.

The night was cold and rainy, and the day was windy and cold, but we just kept moving and all was well.  Rod Fry (see Rod’s take on the retreat here) put a lot of work into the weekend, and led some discussions on integrity which were really great.

Here’s a video to give you a bit of an idea what we did.  For your viewing pleasure I’m posting the director’s cut, which includes the extended waterfall scene.  😉  I didn’t film what we had to eat on Saturday afternoon because I imagine we would soon have 20 or 30 people coming to Mexico to "help out" for all the wrong reasons.  Boy, that was delicious.  😉

But here’s some better motivation for you.  Besides Rod and I, I don’t think there was anyone there who had been in the Lord for more than 8 years – the vast majority 4 or less.  So if you think it’s all been done in Mexico, or that God’s not doing anything, think of these first-generation believers worshipping God in the mountains…

Day 79 – Getting home to Mexico City

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As you know, on Friday we drove across the border and halfway to Mexico City.  On Saturday … well, I drove over something.

I couldn’t avoid it, really.  There was a wall on one side, a truck on the other, and … well, it looked like a piece of wood with a nail in it.

Everything seemed all right.  We arrived in San Juan del Río to meet a fellow missionary and pass on some things we were bringing from Dallas.  He greeted us by telling us we had a flat tire.

The first blessing here was that the tire was actually in the process of becoming flat.  It didn’t blow up, or become instantly flat.  So it doesn’t look like we did any permanent damage to anything (except the tire).

The missionary we met was Jonathan Baker, who was meeting us there at McDonalds with his son Josiah.  Jonathan generously dropped everything and helped us out.  We (eventually) found a tire repair shop, and a fellow came to take a look.  No problem, except he didn’t have right size tire.

Well, this was really no problem at all.  Why?

First, Hannah and Nathanael and Josiah had a HUGE play place in the restaurant to play in while they waited.

But second – this was obviously the "tire" corner of town.

I’m telling you, within 5 minutes of this place there must have been every kind of tire place you can imagine.  You want Firestone?  Michelin?  Goodyear?  How about going to a BFGoodrich place, or Continental, or a few you’ve never heard of?  Take your pick.  It was like a tire theme park.  Not little shops either – big, professional stores.

Big, professional stores – all closed.

That’s right, we drove and drove and stopped and stopped (Jonathan and I with Luis, the tire guy) and nothing in tireland was open.  We finally found one little shop, that didn’t have the right size tire for me, and they said good luck finding anything open today.  Or tomorrow.

To make a long story short, eventually we went back to the original tire repair shop, and they had a tire a little bigger and a little smaller than what we needed.  The smaller one was pretty close, and would do fine until we got home and had a chance to buy a proper replacement.  And this one wasn’t going to break the bank.

A couple guys replaced the tire, and we were on our way.

Our deepest thanks to Jonathan Baker, who was such a great help!  We got home around 8pm after all that, with all the more to praise the Lord for.

So MUCH to praise the Lord for – 79 days after leaving – thank you Lord for countless blessings – your grace and provision!

We are home – enjoying friends and starting to unpack and starting to get things functional again.  What a summer!

A Little, and a Big Reason to Rejoice!

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A rainy patch in the state of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico
Going through a rainy patch
in the state of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico

First, a little reason to rejoice is that we arrived safely in the big and beautiful country of Mexico today!  That represents for us the last of many border crossings over the summer.

We crossed the actual border without being stopped at all, but at the checkpoint which comes a little later we were pulled over and questioned.  

Nate and Amy on the road to the hospital
Nate and Amy on the road to the hospital

The officials investigated a box and a bag, and for a while I was wondering if they were going to give us a big hassle.  But thank the Lord, they let us go after a few minutes with no charges and no problems.

So we’re halfway from the border to home!

But that little reason to rejoice dwarfs next to the BIG reason – we have welcomed a new niece into the world, who was born last night at 7:01pm to Nate and Amy Kidder!  Karina Rose Kidder – little girl and Mom are doing well from what we’ve heard so far.  Praise the Lord!!  🙂

Thanks to all those who prayed for the little crossing into the big country, and the big birth of the little baby!  Two reasons to celebrate!  Is there a good taco place around here?

(Note:  Yeah, okay.  Although this is indeed technically a picture of Nate and Amy on the road to the hospital, it was not taken when they were actually going.  I took it when we were visiting, just so we could imagine what it might be like.  Just in case you thought they have a full time camera crew following them around.) 😉

Ready to Return to Beautiful Mexico

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I’m back to give you an update on the last leg of our journey south back to Mexico!

We left New York State after a great visit with Shari’s sister Amy and her husband Nate.  Their baby was present, but refused to make an appearance.  So we are still anxiously waiting for news and pictures from the north!

Part of Memphis
A bit of the Memphis skyline
8 September 2009
So since Sunday morning we’ve been travelling south and west.  As you can see above, we left Memphis this morning, and are planning to spend Wednesday in Dallas getting ourselves organized for the rest of the trip.  (We also learnt on the way up that a non-driving day would be a good thing to try in the middle.  We’re taking 3 days to Dallas, and plan to take 3 days to get home.)

Lord willing we’ll be crossing the US/Mexico border on the morning of the 11th – Friday.  So we would really appreciate your prayers that all would go smoothly and that there wouldn’t be unnecessary delays and expenses.  As always we appreciate your prayers for our safety on the road in both countries.

Got some more driving to do – see you later!

Ontario Days Ending

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At The Beaches, Toronto
At The Beaches in Toronto, Ontario

If all goes according to schedule, tomorrow will be our last full day in Canada!  The time sure has flown by, as we knew it would.  So I thought I’d stop and give you an update and let you know what will be happening the last few days.

Basically, we’ve been zipping around southern Ontario, visiting family and friends.  On Sunday, we enjoyed a visit to Heise Hill Brethren in Christ Church, where we shared and sang in the morning service.

On Sunday evening I had a great time sharing the Maximizing Your Short Term Mission Trip seminar, also at Heise Hill.  We had a great group, some of whom had never been involved in missions, others who had quite a bit of experience, some who had even received teams as long term missionaries, or who were involved in missionary training.  There were also a few members of a team that will be serving in Cuba this fall.

So we had a great time (well, I did, and it seemed like most everyone was having a good time!) going through the material, and then we took some extra time brainstorming specific topics, like – how can we get others interested in mission trips, when they’re not the ones going?  What kinds of things can we do or bring with us that will help us interact with people of other cultures?  We came up with some great creative ideas.

Today we were at The Beaches (or The Beach, depending on who you talk to), Toronto, with our friends the Beaches.  And yes, while we were there we visited the beach.

And now… continuing south…

And now we continue our trip south, heading south of Lake Ontario to Wainfleet tomorrow, then on Wednesday we’ll be crossing the border into the USA.  We’re looking forward to visiting Shari’s sister Amy and her husband Nate (and maybe… maybe… their new baby… will it arrive in time??), who you may know from their famous blog Under The African Rain.

From there we plan to continue south on the weekend, arriving in Mexico City the following week.  As I have more specific dates I’ll let you know – we would appreciate your prayers as we travel and especially as we cross borders.

Lots more to say, but no time – maybe we can have an "Ontario Week" when we get back to Mexico, and catch you up on some of the interesting news.  🙂

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