Hello friends and family!!! We have arrived here in Teapa, Tabasco, Mexico. Get out your maps and Ill take you on our journey.
It all started Sunday morning with an exciting send-off from Matamoros. Blue Team pulled ahead but was quickly passed up by our
beautiful Orange. She continued on down the road for about 5 seconds before Kim and Jess S. needed a pit-stop. Afterwards we continued on our way until we arrived at a beautiful little coastal town. Actually, we assume it was a coastal town. After getting multiple directions to “la playa” (the beach) we decided to just get some food. So we stopped at a wonderful little chicken restaurant where they treated us with their best chicken. Afterwards, we continued on our way, assuming we would stop in Paso Rico. However, Paso Rico turned out to be somewhat evasive, so instead we stopped for the night in Papalante (please excuse all the spelling of the towns!!!). This had to be the cutest little town ever. They had a large town square that was the happening place for the night. We searched around and found a nice clean hotel and dropped off our stuff and headed for food. The sweetest lady in a nearby restaurant offered to make us anything we wanted, breakfast, lunch or dinner. Paul and I chose breakfast, everyone else chose dinner. Corey (our incredibly amazing translator) received a most amazing plate of food. After a few more meals with him, weve realized that Corey has the gift of food finding. From now on we decided he orders first and we all say Ditto! Though we were racing to Veracruz, our team decided that more than winning, we wanted to rest. So we slept in at our beautiful hotel and headed towards Veracruz later that morning (we started about two hours after the Blue Team won!!). We quickly found our way and got right to the finish line. So we decided to explore Veracruz a little more. After a wonderful lunch in a nearby cafe, we found the most amazing beach. We had a lot of fun playing in the sand and water and talking with others at the beach. About 5pm we piled back into Orange and headed on towards Teapa. However, it was already getting dark and the roads are a little windy, so we stopped off at San Andres at another amazingly wonderful hotel. We had dinner at the restaurant below the hotel with a wonderful man who used to work in New York. He was incredibly helpful with directions to Teapa and insights on the road ahead. Praise Jesus for such helpful friends along the way! So we arrived in Teapa today (after a couple detours… we enjoy the scenic route!) and met Pastor Javier Lopez and Augustin.
This family is amazing. They have opened up their home and their church to us. We are the first American missionaries to come to their colonia, so we are all working to make the best impression possible. They are incredibly hospitable and we are excited to serve them in every possible way. Tomorrow we are going with the pastors to pray through their town and discuss any and all needs and ways we can serve.
Thank you guys for the prayers as we travel. And thank you for the comments and the e-mails.
Because He smiles –
Laura for the Brown Team
