Wow…where do I start because so much has happened in the past several days. Last time I left you, we were all about to leave and start the “race”…so I guess I will begin there. The day before we left Matamoras we went across the border and got a few things we needed to go on our journey, and spent a couple of hours on the internet studying maps and driving directions.
Then came “the day” it all began…Sunday we all woke up bright and early at 5am to have worship and debrief time before we left. I walked outside to where Orange (our trusty blue and white Suburban) was sitting and there were about 6 people crowding around it trying to get the back door to shut. It had been opened to put all of our luggage in and now it wouldn’t shut. Not because there was too much luggage, but because the latch was broken. Yes…broken. After working on it for about 30 minutes no one was able to “fix” it. We solved the problem by rolling up the back window and praying that it wouldn’t break from the pressure of it holding the door closed. (by the way…so far, so good)
Now…the race was on…it was time for it all to begin. So Seth, Gary, Andrew, and some other lovely supporters all lead us to the main road where Seth got out and did the whole…on your mark, get set, go thing and we all took off. Blue and Red were in front of us, but I do have to say by about 10 minutes into it we were in the lead.
After about 3 bathroom breaks and getting gas at what seemed like every 2 hours we found ourselves in a town right by the beach…so what to we do…(considering this is a once in a lifetime experience) we decided to go find the beach. After many wrong turns, driving around in circles several times, and locals sending us in the wrong direction we opted to skip the beach and just get some lunch. We found ourselves a nice local café and ate…what else…mexican food.
No…it’s not “American Mexican”, but it’ll do. I keep finding myself asking if they have salsa…and then receiving either like a ketchup looking thing, a bowl of tomatoes and onions, or some green juice. It’s fun trying so many new foods though.
Several hours later it turned dark and the roads we were on were not very trustworthy. You couldn’t see where you were going, unbelievably bumpy, and Kim and I were tired of being hit in the head with the luggage…so we decided to find a hotel and call it a night. That we did…after shopping around a bit (for a hotel) we found one, grabbed a bite to eat, and crashed.
At dinner we all decided that since we were so tired, spent so long trying to find the beach and we knew the other team was ahead of us…we wanted to sleep in. It’s kind of sad that doing nothing but riding in a car completely wore us out. J So we left about 10 and headed to Veracruz where we were “racing” to get our picture made with this statue. After we got to Veracruz we had no idea how we were going to find the staute, so we just decided to go to the central part and start looking and if we couldn’t find it we would ask someone. We turned down a couple streets and within 5 minutes, we found the statue…Amazing. This was a pretty big downtown area and we were able to get right to it with no help. We got the pic taken, ate lunch, and went to the beach…for about a half hour. We met a lady that spoke English, and shared with her what our year held. Actually Correy who is our translator spoke with her first while we were sitting on some rocks.
As we were leaving, she came up to us and asked if we were traveling around the word to share Christ’s love. We verified his earlier words and she was amazed. She told us she didn’t believe him, but when we said “yes” she knew it was true. It is always a little refreshing too meeting someone who speaks English. Working with translators is fine, but its great to be able to have a high-speed conversation 🙂
About 4pm reality kicked in and we realized that we did still have about 10-12 hours to drive to our final ministry place, so we decided to get back on the road and drive as far as we could. We stopped at another hotel along the way to sleep and got back on the road at 8am Tuesday morning. We were in the car for another 8 hours…so yes…if you have been doing the adding…we have been traveling for 3 days. 🙂
I think (actually I know) I have smelled every smell you could possibly think of…from fried tortillas, to cows, chickens, pigs, to skunks, sewer, and any other possible unpleasant thing you can imagine. It has definitely been interesting!! Kim and I often look at each other like, “can you even pinpoint what that smell is?” Sometimes it’s a delicious smelling food, and other times….uh ya. 🙂
(It’s Wednesday now…) We are at the place where we are going to be ministering and the people are great. We are staying at the church/pastors house. He and his wife are so hospitable and gracious!
The girls are all in a room with bunk beds and the guys are all sleeping on hammocks upstairs.
We went into a village today where we engaged in door to door evangelism. One of the first houses we stopped at, we prayed with a lady named Theresa. Theresa had been involved with a church and recently started drinking more and pulled herself away. As the tears rolled down her cheeks, she asked that we would lift her up and pray for her relationship with the Lord. As we continued on throughout the day, we prayed with many people who were also fighting the very real darkness of this world. From torn families, to drugs, to sickness…the battle is real…but our God is bigger 🙂
We will be in Teapa for the next 10 days and ask that you lift up these local villages. There are many unsaved people, and actually…this is the first time they have had “Americans” here. We have the opportunity to leave a lasting impression of not only Christ, but also “gringos” or white people. J Please pray that the spirit would shine through us and that our love would bring light into their lives.
Tonight, we held a small church service for the people here. The guys sat in on the sermon with the pastor, and the four of us girls went into this little church room and played with the kids.
We were able to teach them duck duck goose, and a few other games. They laughed so hard and caught on very quickly! When we returned home, a group from the home church taught us a drama and a few songs. We were laughed at by the little kids as we stumbled through mimicking their motions 🙂
All in all…things are going great and my thoughts and prayers are with you!
All my love…
