This Summer

During the summer, the Spanish Course continues for those new to Mexico and studying Spanish. However, those who have been here a while and want to brush up their Spanish with a few classes are welcome also. This year we had quite a few summer students. There were even a few kids that came to have fun learning Spanish in a special kids class.
The director of the Spanish Course here travelled half the summer, so while she was gone I was left "in charge" and took over her grammar classes. I think it did more to help my grammar than any others. There is definately truth that the teacher gets more out of what he teaches than the students.
These are the teachers that helped out during the summer. With the extra students, we had to have a few extra teachers. Juan, Noel, Danny (regular teacher), Pati (regular teacher), Monica, and Erick, missing: Arehmi.
Several students had already taken off to take a quick trip to the US by the time we got this picture taken. This is most of the ones that I was with all summer, though.
At the end, we had a traditional Mexican meal, discada, to celebrate summer school's end. There is an endless variety of what you can cook in the disco, but we had hamburger, ham, bacon, onion, green peppers, and jalapenos. That together with fresh corn tortillas made an excellent meal.
Ron, Zack, (full time Spanish students) talking with Danny (teacher) and Tad (summer students, principal of missionary school).

Open Heart Surgery

This morning, at 7:15 CT my Dad's mom, is having open heart surgery to replace a valve. She will then be in ICU for several days, then regular hospital stay for a few more days, then after that, she'll be going to rehab. It will be a long recovery. She'll be 81 on the 29th. Please pray for the surgery: both my Grandma and the surgeons, and for the recovery: for patience and peacefullness for my Grandma. Thanks so much.

And sometimes He uses other peoples' husbands

Here in Mexico, I am alone. I don't have a father, or a brother, or a husband. The Lord is my husband. He is very faithful to take care of me. Many times, He reminds me to do something, like set my alarm before I got to bed! Or, sometimes, when I do forget to set the alarm, or sleep through it! He wakes me up in time to be on time for class, etc. There are many little things like that the Lord does to take care of me.

Sometimes, though, he uses other people to take care of me. One example is cars: I don't know too much about them. I have common sense and know a little bit, so I faithfully take care of checking tire pressure, oil levels, and other fluid levels. And I wash it. That's about the extent of my knowledge about cars. Oh, and I think I could change a tire if I need to. My dad taught me a long time ago, and I think it's a pretty logical process, although I don't look forward to it.

One of the things I've been doing here lately is helping new missionary families arriving in Mexico. Two are here & the third family comes in two weeks. I was taking one of the couples around looking at a few houses when they first arrived so they could find one to rent. As we drove along, I turned right and drove right over a glass bottle, smashing it with by one of my back tires. Everything seemed okay, so I continued to the house we were to see which was only a few blocks away. When we got there, the husband got out and checked my tire(s). I had kinda already forgot about running over the glass. :( The tires where fine, no glass punctures, but he notices the tires were getting warn down and told me I needed to rotate my tires. (Now this was something new, I had heard about rotating tires, but I didn't realise how important it was nor did I know that I was supposed to do it every 6 months! I had had the car for 15 months without rotating the tires, yikes!)

So, the next morning I went into a tire shop recommended by another missionary who knows about cars to get my tires rotated. The tire guy had got two tires switched and went to work on the third one when I got called back to check out the tire. It had a bulge in it. Yikes, I know that's bad, because it can explode on you, which is worse than just a flat tire. So, he put that tire back where it was, in the back, because he said a tire with a bulge needs to be on the back. He put the last tire back on. I wanted to consult someone with more car experience than I before I made an decisions about what to do. So, I prayed and tried to drive carefully on my tire with a bulge.

The first guy I asked said, "Yes, a tire with a bulge is bad. You will have to buy a new tire." The next guy said, "You should probably buy 2 tires, and put the two new tires in front to keep the tires even in pairs. But I can't recommend what to buy. I don't know that much about tires."

So, I came home, praying that the Lord would keep my tires from exploding until I got back to the shop. I called my mom over the internet in PNG and got my dad's email address at work. I told him the problem and my options for tires and he was able to recommend the brand I should get and told me that yes, Man #2 was right, I needed to buy 2 tires to have a matched pair in front and put the two best old tires in the back.

So, the next morning again I went to the tire shop, told them I wanted two new tires in front and the two best old tires in back. Someone came and picked me up so I could leave the car there and get to the Spanish school. That afternoon a friend took me back to the shop to pick up my car. After I'd paid and picked up my keys, the tire guy called me over before I got to my car. He asked me if I wanted my two tires he'd taken off. He said one had the bulge and the other had a nail in it. It hadn't started leaking yet, but it was punctured. I let him keep the two tires! :) I don't think I have any use for them.

I was and am so thankful that the Lord had a knowledgeable man in my car when I ran over the bottle. Otherwise, he wouldn't have looked so closely at my tires, and I wouldn't have gone to get them rotated. The Lord had me change those tires before I got into trouble with them. I drive around alone so much, that I was so thankful to have exchanged a punctured tire and a bulged tire with 2 new tires, ready for thousands of miles. The Lord is protecting me, providing for me, ever so faithfully, and sometimes He uses other peoples' husbands.

And, now I know to rotate my tires. :)

Pics from PNG

Josh was able to go to another area of PNG for about a month and helped out missionaries there with construction projects: especially helping to finish a dorm. While there, he got to do some fun things with friends from school - climbing a mountain, hiking, scuba diving, visiting a tribal village in that region. He enjoyed it immensely. Here's some pics.

Josh in a Picus tree. Can you see him?

Josh scuba diving with some friends. There's one family there who has all the scuba equipment and takes those who want to and who are certified (Josh get certified a few months ago) out diving.

He also got to do some kneeboarding.

This waterfall is one of 4 in a row. It's just a little hike away from the tribal village where Josh & some friends visited. It is truly beautiful there.

Please pray for my eyes

For several months now, I have been having some eye allergies. It gets better & worse, etc. I think it's almost gone, then comes back again. Right now, my eyes are red again. Please pray for patience for me to deal with this & for wisdom in making decisions about contacts, doctors, etc.

My sister's visit

Well, Elisabeth & I had a great time together. We got to work together, eat together, travel to the mountains together, sigh-see a bit together, celebrate her birthday early together. We had a fun time.
Here's some pics from our trip to the mountains.
All throughout the mountains are rock fences. Many of them are really, really old: built centuries ago by the indians when the Spaniards conquered the area to distinguish property lines. Today, some of the fences are reconstructed alongside roads, etc for cattle. This isn't one of the old ones, but they are remarkable. Just piled up rocks that stay where they're supposed to!
Darn, I blinked!

We're heading to the hills - hoping for cooler weather. But alas, it was just as hot up there, and a higher altitute yet, so we ended up getting a little sun!
The little town we visited up in the mountains just a few hours from where I live. A popular tourist stopover.
We did one of the things Lis wanted to do most of all! We took a 3 hour horse ride to see some of the "sights" around the area. Yes, it was painful. I know "how" to ride, but I'm not very experienced & it had been about a year & a half since I had ridden!
There is a large people group that lives throughout the whole part of the mountain range where we went. Actually, that section of the mountains are named after them: Sierra Tarahumara. We have missionaries working in two different dialects of this group.
It is a beautiful, but hard land. These are some of the people's houses.

These people are so lost. This church was built when the Conquerors came to this area of Mexico & introduced a major religion in order to pacify and dominate the people group. This building is used every Sunday. The people get together to do their traditional animistic religious rituals, perhaps having a form of godliness, but denying the Truth.
These people have mixed this major religion with their own traditional animistic religion. One thing that caught my attention was that there were "flower & herb offerings" around the bell, exactly like there was in Santa Teresa with the Cora people. I didn't get to ask anybody about it, b/c we were just riding through. Maybe next time. The church was fairly large, but there were only those two benches in it. The main figure is Saint Ignacious with the crucified Christ on one side & the virgen guadalupe on the other side. This is definately not a place of worship for the resurrected & alive Christ & God of all the Universe.
The Tarahumara believe that "the Catholic cross is not the cross of Christ. It is the cross of a severed man in space, the invisible man with his arms wide open, whose nails look at the four cardinal points." In their ceremonies, they "ask for help to God by setting up a cross. Then after help is received, they give thanks to him by giving presents to him. The cross represents the dialogue between God and the Tarahumaras. Most of the time the gifts consist of: offering the guts of a sacrificed animal (cow/goat), chickens, corn tortillas, or tesguino (fermented corn drink)" Looking behind me on the trail. Two Finnish girls were also part of our trail ride.

Looking ahead of me on the trail. Lis stayed up with the guide the whole time! Go girl!
At the lake, finally. the turn-around place. I really enjoyed the ride & it was much more interesting to see the land slowly from the back of a horse instead of having to catch glimpses while I drove down the road. But, I did get really sore!
The lake is continuously used by the people to bath & wash. It is a major water source for the area.
After our trail ride, we took off to see the Copper Canyon, which is 4 times larger than the Grand Canyon.
It was impressive, but I must say, the Grand Canyon does have some magnificent colours that this place is lacking.

Then, we headed back to town. On our way back, we saw several sights that are no longer part of our American way of life in the US.
Plowing a field behind a horse.
Wood-burning stoves for heat & cooking. This is something you find in many houses throughout the mountains. Winter or summer, they cook on this.
Coming back from the mountains, we stopped off in a city just about an hour from where I live. It is the "Washington" of Mexico. It's the apple capital of this country. It is also a place known for the Mennonites who settled here back just after WWI. My mom's parents originated here before they migrated to Canada. There is a little bit of family left here. And, guess what?
Lis & I asked around & found a Great Uncle & Great Aunt. Their daughter and grandson came over while we were there, so we got to meet all of them. That was such a delight. They only speak Low-German & Spanish. And, we only speak English & Spanish, so we conversed in Spanish!

It was a full trip, but I was able to share with Elisabeth my life here & we had some sister-time. Thanks for coming, Lis.

Catching up

Well, Let's see if I can get caught up here. It's been a little while since I've been on here, so I want to update a bit.

Filling a Need

The folks who host the guest house in El Paso that our mission and a few other missions use took a few month furlough to go see their family and visit their churches. So, there is a rotation to fill that need while they are gone.
This last week was my turn. I've been cleaning toilets, vacuuming, doing tons of laundry. Then, something exciting happened. A semi truck pulled up right in front of the house! JAARS helped one of the MK school teachers move back to Mexico from her furlough. So, I got to help unload her stuff - table, couch, plastic tubs, etc. Soon, everything was loaded up in a pickup and on it's way to Mexico.
So, this is one opportunity the Lord has opened for me to help out.

Cora Pics

Cora Trip
Some of you may be interested in pics from the Cora tribe down in Nayarit. We visited two areas/two dialects. Both places are spiritually dark with need for clear communication of the Gospel in their own language & dialect.

A Visit from my Sister!!

My sister came to visit me in Mexico! I'm so excited to be here with her. Today was our first complete day together. We were tired, so we slept in a little bit! Then she went to work with me and helped out a bunch!

The two Chapman girls in Mexico.Elisabeth stayed busy folding little reading booklets. We were able to find & download graded readers in Spanish for the Spanish Dept. They gave me the job of getting them folded, and ready. There are tons! I've been working little by little each day while I watch a movie, etc, but it just wasn't getting done fast enough. Elisabeth & one of the Spanish teachers, Danny, helped me out today and we made a huge dent in the pile.
I stayed busy trying to keep the printer caught up with their folding & assembling while trying to revise some grammar sections of the current Spanish lessons.
In the early evening, we went to a local park to enjoy the trees, grass, and water! It is a cool, refreshing, and fragrant place where you forget you're living in a crowded city in the middle of a desert! It was nice.
After walking around a while, we stopped to get some freshly made juice. The choices were: beet, carrot, alfalfa, cactus, pineapple, orange, and maybe one other flavour. These are what I remember. Needless to say, we had orange juice. It reminded us of the freshly squeezed orange juice that we used to drink in Panama. It's stuff you just don't get in the US.
Although it's a little late, there were a few roses left in full bloom. They smelled so beautiful.

It was a nice first day together!

Monday Nite Bible Study

Well, last week, just a few girls showed up, and they were girls who've been in the church a long time. So, we decided to do a review of the 9 plagues in Egypt & see God's power over the gods of this world and study the Passover this week, praying that the unsaved girls would come.
So, this week it was my turn again to teach, because I had prepared the Passover lesson. The Lord is in control of all things. There weren't many girls that went last night, either, but 3 girls who were recently saved went. We reviewed the 9 plagues & continued into the 10th plague with the Passover. It was so exciting to see how the instructions God gave to the Israelites to kill a perfect lamb to take the place of the first-born son correspond to Christ, being perfect, dying in our place, so we can live eternally.
The Lord knew who needed to hear the lesson yesterday. It is not my job to "save" the unsaved, just to be faithful with what He has called me to do. It is His job to woo them & to convict them. I'm praying that they might recognize their need for a Saviour soon, though. We never know when our last day on earth will be!

A tribal worldview

Andrew & AnneMarie, Joseph, Madeline, Julian, & Sofia

The Fergusons work in a tribal group called the Southern-western Tepehuan. It's been hard going, but they are living in the village most of the time now. They are building reltionships with the people and learning their language. This is one of their recent updates that lets you see some of the cultural worldview of the Tepehuan people. We want them to be able to interpret the world through a Biblical worldview & not what Satan has been tell them for millenia! Please pray for these people & for the Fergusons as they work out there in the mountains.

Its not like when you work with an animistic tribal group that you don't expect there to be big differences in how we think and view the world. I mean, good grief, they have a completely different outlook on life and spirituality. We expected it and have been trained to identify and incorporate it as we seek to communicate cross-culturally, but even with the expectation and training, we find ourselves surprised by how different their world view is from ours. We never imagined though how serious the ramifications could be. We've been out in Lajas for the past three weeks during which occurred the Easter festivities. None of the Tepehuan festivities portray a true reflection of Christ suffering, dying, being buried and raising to life again. It seems Jesus has been suspiciously removed from their tradition, and replaced by the legendary "bull". The bull is represented by a horn that is uncovered and let out of the church Wednesday evening. This horn is taken by a group of 5 to 6 guys, and they proceed to blow it as they troop around the village slowly getting drunk and asking for more alcohol from the people. They don't sleep for 3 whole days. (Hard to believe when you're drunk as they are.) Fiestas are held Thursday and Friday in which the bull is heard roaring the whole time. He ends up on Saturday back at the church where he dies and goes up to glory. The horn is wrapped up until next year. It would take a book to detail the whole tradition of the bull and all the things that happen, but suffice to say, far removed from the story of Jesus. Fortunately, the police had a heavy presence in the village during Easter, and while there was a lot of drinking and drunkenness, there was minimal violence and no killings. At times we had to stay close to the house and keep the kids under watch, but generally we had a safe and peaceful time. We had a constant barrage of visitors which for the most part we enjoy, but at times their timing can be impeccable and so one can get frustrated. Its great for language but tough on the family. Our kids did well for the most part, but were at times bored for the lack of playmates. We need to get some new DVD's as they have "over" watched what we have. We all got sick (except Anne Marie) with a virus, which for nearly all the kids except Joseph, turned into a bronchial infection. Fortunately we were able to get some antibiotics from the clinic which seemed to do the trick. We weren't the only ones to get sick. Faustino's little girl Maria also got sick. Faustino is a neighbor, we've known him for close to five years and he has helped me a lot with building our house and also with learning Tepehuan. We've become good friends and spend a lot of time together. He and his wife Theodora have two children. Lots of people had come down with the virus, Maria had been running around with the other kids and so it was no surprise when she got it too. A few days later they came over and asked for some Tylenol as she had a fever. We gave them some and suggested they take her down to the clinic. They said they would, but they didn't and she got worse. She was vomiting and not eating or drinking and so we gave them some suero powder which you mix with water for children who are dehydrated. The following day we were absolutely shocked when Faustino's aunt told us that Maria had died. We felt terrible. How could she be dead? It was the same virus our kids had and they weren't fighting for their life. We went over to the house and were shocked again to find out she hadn't died, but was very close to it. They hadn't taken her to the clinic like they said they would. They hadn't given her any medication, and they hadn't given her the dehydration serum we had offered. I offered to take her down to the clinic in my truck and they said that the medicine there is no good. I offered to take her into the city, but they felt she would make it and didn't want her to die there. I decided to go down to the clinic and get help from the Tepehuan nurse. The nurse said that there was nothing she could do as they had no infant I.V needles and so, as the child was incredibly dehydrated and small, there was no way they would be able to get an adult one into the vein. She gave me some more oral dehydration serum and suggested I give it to the child with a syringe. Arriving back at the house, the grandmother has Maria in her arms and everyone is very somber. Maria's eyes are rolled back and every faint breath is an agony for her. I squeezed 1 ml. of serum into her mouth and thankfully she swallows. I gradually worked it up until I was able to give her almost 5 ml. at a time and then wait a few minutes. Meanwhile, the grandmother has some special leaves with which she furiously rubs the child up and down. Obviously a spiritual connection, but in the end just causes more discomfort. I'm praying inside, "Lord don't let this child die, you're stronger than the curse." Thankfully, with time Maria responds to the serum and her eyes open up and she breathes a little easier. Everyone notices the improvement but still she's not out of the woods. "Thanks Lord, it seems to be working." Someone needs me at the house and so I leave them for a while, showing them how to give her the serum with the syringe. Anne Marie made a beef broth with the hope that it might help Maria get some strength back, but back in the house again Maria is on the bed with seemingly no improvement in her condition, the syringe is in the same position as when I left. I asked why they didn't give her any, and they said she didn't want it. I continue to give her the serum, but now the grandmother is agitated and feels I am hurting the child. Maria cries out for her mother and and wants water. I give her more serum but now the grandmother is angry and wants me to leave the child alone. The child is so close to dying that I didn't want them to blame me for her death, which was a very likely possibility, so I was forced to oblige. A couple of times Maria seemed about to die and inside I felt I was driving demons away through prayer. I tried a couple more times to give her the serum, but wasn't allowed. Faustino was just sitting there. The mother was sitting in the corner crying, the grandmother was muttering away about what the shaman had said. It was like they had already accepted she was going to die and were just waiting. I didn't want to watch, so I left. We prayed for Maria as a family, and about an hour and a half later Anne Marie tells me that Maria has died. We go over to see and everyone is saying, "Jii go alhii." "The child is gone." There seemed to be less grief shown now that she had died than before. They had laid her on the bed where she had died and so we paid our respects and went back home. Later on that day Faustino came over and we drank coffee. He told me the reason they had not taken her to the clinic is because two shamans had already told them that the child had been cursed and that there was no way she could be saved. A third shaman, a lady, used an egg and rubbed the white all over Maria's body. She told them that in a vision she had seen that Maria's scarf was buried in the burial grounds, and this signified she would die, that it was already too late. Not in our thinking - it was just a viral infection, something antibiotics could easy clean up. Other kids in the village had come down with the same virus but had received antibiotic shots in the clinic and pulled through. In fact, if they would've let us, we could've saved Maria. We almost did but it wasn't to be. You see that's why the aunt told us before that the child had died when she hadn't yet. That's why they wouldn't give her the medication. They courteously allowed me to give her serum for a while, but wouldn't themselves when I was gone. Maria was already dead, the shamans had said so. They made comments that her hair was sticking up, a sign that her spirit would soon leave. The grandmother commented that her hands and feet were stone cold (obviously, she was dehydrated and her body was shutting down) and that her chest was hot (body sending blood to the vital organs), but to them that signifies the spirits want the heart (distant beliefs from their human sacrifice days). Yes, its pretty cool learning how another culture thinks and acts, till it costs the life of a child. The immediate and extended family of Maria stay up the whole night and never sleep for fear her spirit will return and try and take them with her. They won't bathe for 5 days after her death. Faustino and Theodora wear a white string around their neck for the next five days. The following morning Faustino asked me to make a wooden cross. It was an honour. We took the cross over and laid it beside Maria's body in the room. Our kids got to see her. Efren and Bernadino were heading off to dig the grave, they asked if I wanted to help. There is something strangely honouring to get to dig the grave of your friend's daughter. A solemn task that allows time for reflection. Who won here? Satan or God? O.K., I know better, our theology says God wins, He's sovereign. But why does He seemingly stand back and allow His servants to seem powerless. Medically, we might've been able to save her. Miraculously, God definitely could have raised her up from that sick bed, he could pull her from that grave right now. Or did He take her by His grace because she was just a child, not yet at the age of accountability? We're not about to throw it all away, but you have to ask the deep and dangerous questions. We're just extremely thankful for all of you who pray for us and for our Tepehuan friends. Pray that they will begin asking these same questions. Pray that they will become completely dissatisfied with their beliefs and practices and yearn for a better way, the truth. Satan is trying to destroy these people and Jesus wants to save them. Thanks for being a part of taking the message of life to a place of death.

The Passover Lamb

Please pray for me Monday night, as I will be teaching the story of the Passover to the girl's Bible study, that the Lord would communicate through me & that the lesson would be clear & simple. There will be one unsaved girl there, Joanna, and possibly another girl, Sonia. I know the Lord's been working on Joanna, so pray that both would clearly understand what I will be teaching about God, salvation, and Christ's substitutional sacrifice. The study starts at 9pm Mountain Time and usually goes to about 11pm.
Thanks.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

I love you.

Introducing.... My Monday Night Girls' Bible Study Group

It is basically a group of girls from church. We're going through the Bible chronologically emphasizing basic truths of God, man, man's need for salvation, and God's provision of a Savior. There have been several nonbelieving girls that have been coming & a few just newly saved girls. Tania, the one in yellow, sitting on the floor got saved just over a month ago. She'd been coming to the group for a few weeks, so had a little foundation. One Monday we taught on Noah, then the next Sunday in church, the pastor preached on Noah & Salvation & she got saved that day! It is so cool to see the Holy Spirit working in her & the change that is taking place.
Last week we decided to cram into a small bedroom for the study, just because we wanted to!
Sarai Vargas & I co-lead the group. We take turns teaching & comment on the other person's week when necessary.
Claudia, Daniela, Judit, Clara, Janet
Sarai, Tania, Lily

None of the unsaved girls where here last week when we took pics. But please pray for their understanding. Their names are Sonia & Mine (Meenay). I'm not sure if Denise is saved or not. I don't know her really well & she's quiet. Please pray for the Holy Spirit to be working in her life, also. Others who have been saved for about a year are Sarahi & Lily. Many of the girls that are newly saved or aren't saved come from unsaved families. So, they have a lot of pressure to not become Christians. It's a spiritual battle, folks.