Dear Friends,
Greetings from Durango. We are happy to say we made it through
the two-week stay in Lajas unscathed, but it wasn't without its events. We are very appreciative of your prayers for our safety and stamina out
there. God surely answered.
Hurricane Lane lashed the western coast of Mexico, sending heavy rains
across Durango. Its toll was evident on the road to Lajas. Fortunately
it didn't rain on our trip out, but in places there was evidence of trees having fallen across the road, and recently cleared rock and mudslides. Barry's truck was having mechanical difficulties with a steering damper bending and seizing. We had actually gone quite a ways ahead before we noticed they weren't with us. By the time we had turned around and gotten back to where they were broken down, Barry had the offending object removed. We made a 32 point turn and all headed on our merry way to Lajas.
Night had fallen and heavy fog had descended over the village as we pulled in. It was hard to find the track up to our house as the weeds and grass were shoulder high in places. Once or twice we lost our way, but eventually we could see the outline of our house. Suddenly the truck lurched violently and skidded sideways as we plowed ahead, but after doing that for 12 hours, who cares, eh? The kids don't even lift their eyes from the Gameboy. Anne Marie half wakes up and asks if we hit anything, but the driver, after 12 hours on this kind of road, has no answers and makes no decisions. Your eyes feel like lead, your head is cloudy, your back and shoulders ache, but you've blown the limit on the recommended daily intake of ibuprofen. You simply look over with bloodshot eyes and go "huh?" We backed up into our yard and began unloading when Barry radioed in.
About the worst nightmare for a Lajas missionary is to get your truck
bogged to the axles. Made only more frustrating when you are only 300
yards from the house. Barry's exact words over the radio where, " I'm
stuck in mud and I aint going nowhere." This isn't good news as basically we all had plans of unloading, eating, and getting into bed. Then it began to rain. Not just rain, but it bucketed down.
Barry was right, his truck wasn't going anywhere! Both axles were literally buried and no chance of getting out quickly. In the end it took a day and a half to get the truck out. We tried digging, pulling with my truck and then with a bigger dump truck. We couldn't jack the truck up. There was no solid ground anywhere. In the end with a help from a bunch of Tepehuan, logs where used as levers to lift up the wheels and get rocks under them, and Barry was able to drive out.
Somehow in the darkness, I had managed to drive my truck through the
same bog, but the wheels had luckily gone where the ground wasn't as
boggy. This explained the sudden skidding of our truck two nights before.
With the truck out we were able to concentrate on getting our houses
setup and getting on with life. Candy started school and our kids got into the swing of heading next door for school every morning. I was able to get our solar panels and system up and running. It was nice for a change to just have to flick a switch for light. We were able to run our portable freezer and keep meat and food frozen. Cold cokes even. Luxury!
A really cool deal is that we found a place to swim 20 minutes from the house. O.K, swimming might be stretching it, but you can get wet and completely submerse yourself. We're not sure how long that water hangs around after rainy season.
Julian was stoked to find that some green beans he had planted a few
months earlier had produced. We were able to pick all three of them and eat them with supper. It felt good to kick start our sustainable living off on a positive and productive note.
The fact that we stayed out in Lajas longer didn't go unnoticed, but it seems the Tepehuan got used to the idea. The intense visiting seemed to dwindle as the idea of us being there longer settled in. Calistro came by for some early morning visits. He nearly always wants to talk about spiritual matters, or at least about what he believes. We have shared with him the Gospel on numerous occasions, but unfortunately he wants to be in teacher mode rather than listener. He is quite capable of understanding the Gospel in Spanish, but isn't open to the idea that Jesus is the only way. Pray for Calistro's eyes to be opened to the truth, and that he would begin to see his true lost spiritual state.
It was good to be finally able to settle into consistent language study in the village. Once we are out there more, we will be able to have language helpers come on a more consistent basis. Once they get used to how things are done, we should be able to move ahead more rapidly with the language.
October 4th is San Francisco Day. Saint Francis is the patron saint of
Lajas. We have shared before that the Tepehuan were exposed and forced
to convert to Catholicism hundreds of years earlier, but in essence, they added the catholic beliefs to their animistic ones, and changed the names of the spirits to that of catholic saints. Preparations have already started days and weeks before the big day, and Saint Francis is dragged out of the church and carried around to many of the houses in the village the day before.
Adornments are made and hung around the the centre of the town. These
are made from what can only be described as a huge wild spring onion. Long pieces are peeled off which contain a part of the bulb. They are woven in a circular fashion to something that looks like a huge flower. I got to try a few and succeeded, but they weren't as pretty as the rest.
Five bulls were killed in preparation, and on the 4th, the fiesta starts. Everyone gathers in the town centre and atole and beef soup are served. The dancers dance and new leaders are chosen for the following year. We made our way down to the fiesta and sat in the shade to watch. For us, we've seen it all before and it goes so slow that really it is quite boring.
This year however there were a couple of interesting events. Barry was
sitting about twenty yards away from us and then suddenly moved over
to where we were. Not long after, a fight developed between two men and punches were being thrown. Tepehuan fights more often than not end in a death. One of them was drunk and was the aggressor. Barry had heard the conversation between the two men escalating and so had made a hasty retreat just in time. There are a group of chosen men called sergeants, and their job is to break up any disturbances and maintain the peace. They carry short rope belts woven in a way that they can use them to either hit or grab an assailant's arm if he is using a knife or punching, etc. Three or four sergeants jumped into the melee and the aggressor was wrestled to the ground and carried off. He didn't settle down and so was promptly tied up and thrown inside one of the buildings. We later learned that they are kept there for up to five days without food.
Unfortunately, there were quite a lot of drunks present this year, and this makes things a little unnerving as fights often develop. A little while later suddenly shots were being fired, and not too far away. We couldn't see exactly what was going on, but a crowd of people rushed over to see. I was talking with the catholic priest at the time and wasn't aware that Joseph and Julian had joined the crowd. Anne Marie let me know and so I quickly went to bring them back.
From where the boys were we still couldn't see what was happening, but
soon the sergeants walked by carrying a flailing, cussing, and very
angry young man. Interestingly, Victor was one of the sergeants
involved. You may remember a few years earlier had threatened to kill
me. He was drunk at the time. I was somewhat amused that he was now
being called upon to stop such activity. From what we gathered, this man was drunk and for some reason was wildly shooting his gun. We're not sure if he intended to kill anyone. We didn't see how the sergeants got this guy down and how they disarmed him, but to approach an armed drunk with nothing more than short ropes is impressive to say the least.
Later on I was returning some bowls to the cooking area and two drunks,
one of which was looking to pick a fight with another, walked terribly
close to where Anne Marie and the kids were. This guy made his way to
where I was and began saying things trying to antagonize me.
Fortunately there were a few guys around, and so in the crowd I was
able to leave without really having to engage him. We decided it best
to get back to the house as the situation was getting dangerous. We've
decided that in the future we will probably stay away from the fiestas
if there are drunks around.
Joseph, Madeline, Julian, and Sophia did well for the two weeks. Having
school meant that more of their time was occupied. Barry helped out a lot with some extra curricula activities such as baseball and a daily novel reading in the evenings. This all helped our kids adjust to the different environment. We are praying that they'll be able to find some good friends out there.
So how do we feel at this stage? We thought that we would've felt a lot more excited at this point. But I guess it has happened so gradually, that there hasn't been a real defined point to get excited about. Life is still very hard out there in the sense that a lot of time is taken up with living. We don't have running water, or any decent way to wash the myriads of dirty clothes our kids generate. Bathing and showering is a lengthy process of having to heat up a lot of water on the stove. My bucket shower wasn't real effective and is back in the R & D stage We have no way of keeping fresh fruit and vegetables for more than two weeks, and so in the months ahead, there is still much to do.
A couple of things that have been happening, albeit slowly, is that grid power has almost made its way into Lajas. We don't appreciate all the wires and posts that have changed the landscape, but the ensuing blessing is sure to help. Hopefully it will mean we can have regular
refrigerators in Lajas, as opposed to the expensive solar or gas alternatives.
There is also talk of the water system being improved. Apparently the
government is planning to build a new water storage tank and install a
new larger water line from the spring further up in the mountains. This in effect will quadruple the towns water supply. This could mean that we then would have sufficient water to plumb our house for running water and have a washing machine. We praise the Lord for these happenings and pray that they will soon get to the completion stage.
All in all we feel good about what is happening. We are very thankful for each one you who are praying faithfully for us. You truly are a part of this work as if you were here. It has been a long haul and there is still plenty of hauling to go, but we know God is in control and is making sure the job is going to get done. He has provided for us so faithfully and continues to do so. We are so indebted to each one who receives this update and prays for us. This job just couldn't be done without you. Thank you all so much.
For Jesus and His glory,
Andrew, Anne Marie, Joseph, Madeline, Julian and Sophia
P.S. Our prayer cards are done and we'll be posting them out soon. Make
sure we have your address if you want one.
...
October 2006 letter
