MexSonShine: September 2009

The summer was a whirlwind for us, but we are safely back home in Mexico after two months of traveling in the US and Canada. It was wonderful to spend time with family and friends. We have so many people to thank who helped us along the way. We've been reading the book of Acts in our family devotionals; I find that I identify with Paul as so many people helped him along his journeys. We have been fed (overfed), housed (very comfortably), and spoiled (rotten) all the way from the Mexican border to the rural areas of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and back!! We've sat around many tables of friends and supporters from years gone by, as well as developed new friendships along the way. Many thanks to all who had a part in our journeys this summer.

We accomplished many things during our time away from Mexico. We rented our Saskatoon house for another year. The couple is hoping to buy it. They will know more of their situation the first of the year. We again thank Ian MacLeod for managing that property for us. We were able to celebrate the twins' 20th birthday together. How can they already be adults? We were granted our manaje from the Mexican government which allowed us to transport our household goods from Canada into Mexico. G'pa's garage and basement are now empty of our boxes, beds and plastic containers!!! Bern's brothers helped us load a 17 foot U-Haul in just under three hours. Logan, Mom and Dad waved good-bye on the morning of Sept. 2, and headed for San Antonio, Texas (via Childress, Tx and Abilene, Tx). It was a highlight to visit with long-time partners in the Mexico work, Billy and Belinda Moore, then visit with Bobby and Gail Lawson from the Southern Hills Church in Abilene. Our dear friends, Angela and Bryan Gately, drove from Lazaro Cardenas up to San Antonio hauling their empty trailer. Again our liaison missionary friends, Bob and Patty Grigg came to our rescue and allowed us to use their house as our meeting station where we incorporated help from a member of their house church, Josh, to unload the contents of the U-Haul into the empty trailer. We were sure wishing we had Bern's brothers to help. It took substantially longer than three hours to make the transfer!!! Bernard had to do some fancy packing as the trailer was a bit smaller than the U-Haul. Surprisingly, the guys fit everything in!!! The next day, we two families headed toward the Mexican border. Would we have problems getting our possessions into Mexico??? We whipped out our menaje and the border patrol flagged us through. We were stopped two more times, but with one look at the menaje, the officials were satisfied and sent us on our way. We are forever grateful to Bryan and Angela for their sacrifice of time and energy to help us get our possessions to Mexico. No truer friends can be found!!!

We were overjoyed to get to Miramar and unload our possessions. We gave a quick round of hugs and "missed yous" to a few loved ones there, then set out to unload the trailer one more time. Logan was so excited to find some of his precious things that have been packed up for over a year. Having to get acclimated again to the heat, it took us most of the afternoon to unload. We cooled off in a nearby pool when we felt like we were going to melt into the cement.
It was wonderful getting to our home and sleeping in our own beds that night of Sept 10. Home, Sweet Home after miles/kilometers on the road!!

But wait, we don't have too much time to bask in the sweetness of home. We have Wade and Richelle Grocott coming from Saskatchewan to run a three week Let's Start Talking program!!! They come in tomorrow!!! We have to get their bed set up. We unpack the fans we brought on the trailer so that their upstairs room will be bearable in the heat. Bern headed for the airport in Zihuatanejo, an hour and 1/2 from Lazaro to pick up Wade and Richelle, but five hours later he arrived home WITHOUT our LST workers. A quick run to the cybercafe informed us that Wade had gotten sick in transit so they were still in Toronto--maybe tomorrow. Another run to Zihuatanejo proved more productive, and we welcomed Wade and Richelle into our home Saturday, Sept 12.
.
They had a bit of a slow project start because Richelle was sick the first two days, we had not been in Lazaro to get their readers set in place, plus we had no phone service for a week (apparently lightening damaged our line/modem while we were away). However, by Monday they were both well and reading. By Wednesday, they both had full schedules!!! By Thursday we had phone and internet service. We are so very pleased with the great readers God has brought to Wade and Richelle. It will be hard to let the Grocotts go back to Canada. They fit in so beautifully here. We feel so very blessed to have them as our first LST team. We look forward to many more LST projects as Wade and Richelle pave the path for future teams!!

I look forward to getting back to my weekly blog. Thank you for your encouragement in keeping up with what's going on in our corner of the world. We love you and thank you for your prayers that you offer to our God on our behalf. We love being back with our family here in Lazaro Cardenas.
Enjoy the photos and we'll have a shorter blog next week.