Dear Friends,
All is well here. We just spent a busy two weeks in Lajas and were surprised to spend the first week in cloudy, foggy days where it rained quite often. We were able to get our small vegetable garden started and it was nice to experience some cooler weather.
It was sad to see Alma in such bad condition and we are surprised she is still alive. Her parents are not wanting to bring her into Durango again, even though they saw how well she became after spending a week in the hospital. They continue to take her to witchdoctors hoping for a cure. Unless the Lord intervenes powerfully, Alma has very little time left.
Our time in the village was quite normal - we spent our days working on language and being with people. While the Tepehuan are very helpful with us learning their language, it is hard to find someone who wants to sit down and work consistently every day. The person needs to be a good Spanish speaker especially as we begin to move into deeper areas of language and meaning, and especially as I’m beginning to look for spiritual terminology that we’ll need for evangelization and Bible teaching later on. Anne Marie and I get a lot of good language and recording from folks, but it is difficult to get the precise meanings especially on difficult concepts, as many of the people we use are either monolingual, or are very poor Spanish speakers. We have some great visits with people and are able to get good recordings, but trying to get meaning and to understand how the Tepehuan communicate their feelings, their beliefs, trust, sin, wrong doing and truth is difficult. Pray with us as we trust the Lord to be able to find a few people that will be interested in working consistently everyday with us in the language.
The kids were a little bored as with so many cloudy days, movie time and time on the internet were limited. Joseph, Julian and I hiked to the river for some fishing and swimming which was fun but also exhausting. Everyone was able to get involved with the garden. Our pomegranate tree and one of our banana plants both have fruit on them, and we’re all waiting till they ripen. Our kids are eager for the bananas and the Tepehuan are keen for the pomegranate as they have never tasted them before.
Be praying for our coworker Barry. He started to experience what seemed like an irregular heartbeat. He saw the doctor in the clinic in Lajas and was given some medication for high blood pressure. Barry and Candy are still out in the village for another week, and he hopes to get a full checkup once back in the city. Pray that all will go well and that he won’t experience any more problems.
Today we head out to Canada. We’ll be driving up to the east Texas border on to Houston and then flying to Toronto. Anne Marie’s brother Joel is getting married on Saturday. After the wedding we’ll fly to Manitoba and spend a few weeks with the family. We’re grateful for the help Anne Marie’s sister could be with the tickets. We’ll be back in Durango around the 16th of July.
We thank you for your prayers.
For Jesus,
Andrew and Anne Marie
...
June 2008 letter
