Every year it seems as thought we are more and more at home. With Thanksgiving we celebrated with our fellow American missionaries. It was a day of familiar food that brings you right back to your roots. It is still a bit different celebrating Thanksgiving wearing shorts and t-shirts unlike the years of cold weather we had in Minnesota. Yet like I said it gets more and more normal to be way from home.

After Thanksgiving we got the house back together again. Then on to other projects and events for the following month. We have a Christmas project as well as doing a vacation bible school before Christmas. We might even go to the coast for a day or two in the middle of it all. Busy, busy, busy.

One thing I thought I would mention was one of my students from level one English class. Last night we once again read from the Bible in English. As we talked about it. There is one student in particular whose name is Imelda. She is in her 50's and has 5 children from the ages of 31 to 11. She has told me that her husband left her some time ago. Each week she writes down the scriptures that we go over in class so she can read them to her family when she gets home. It is something she looks forward to each week. Each week just getting a bit of the truth which is being planted in her heart. It is the truth that sets you free. Pray for her. Pray that God would use His word to speak to her.

    Every month, I need to pay the rent for our house. This is not a just drop-it-off type of deal. The owners of the house are in their early 70's. They are "old fashion". When it comes to paying the rent you have to spend 30 minutes talking about a variety of topics before you get down to paying the rent. Yesterday was just like every other month. Only this time, it was just the wife. They have a shrine set up in their front patio for the lady of Guadalupe (virgin Mary). It was a typical shrine set up to honor Mary adorned with Christmas lights, as well as flowers and candles. You can see the photo I took (click on it to make it bigger). I asked if I could take a picture of it. She said of course. She then told me of the stars that are located on her clothing. There are 46. She said that each one represents the days leading up to Dia de Guadalupe which is on December 12. Each day, there is a small mass in each home that wants to, to have a rosary done. So the days leading up to December 12, they meet in front of their little "alter" for time of prayer for the families. What a tradition. To see a people so dedicated to their way of life and how they are fulfilling their duty to the "Mother of God" in order to pay her respect. This lady also told me about the actual painting that it was done by one of the aunts of our landlord who lived with her two sisters in our house. They are so blinded to the truth of God's word. Oh that  God use me to open the eyes of the bind. I did not want to disrespect her and the traditions they have. The are people trying to earn grace. Little by little, I have had chances to tell them some of the differences we as Christians believe according to scripture. Having an opportunity to see this first hand only makes me more aware of the people who are all around us leading their lives according to what they have been told and the traditions they have. Many have never actually studied the bible. When you talk to someone about grace, they don't refrence scriptures. They reference to what feel. Pray that God would open hearts

    Our days with Willa were very encouraging. Willa is the secretary at our mission's headquarters and the former director's wife. She was such a blessing to have visit us here in Autlan. You begin to realize that as you share with someone outside of your circle of ministry, how God is really working in lives around us. We were very blessed have this time with her.

    On Friday, the day we picked her up from the airport turned out to be an interesting day. As we were ready to leave for Guadalajara, we got out to the truck where we realize we had a flat tire. So I changed it out only to find the spare was flat as well. The spare had not been used in some time so after getting it pumped up with air, we finally made it on the road. We were very happy to have time to talk with Willa after picking her up. We had the whole ride home (which is 2 1/2 hours) to catch up on things. When we got to the final curves that is about 30 minutes of constant curves between the mountains, the traffic came to a complete stop. We asked police officer who had his lights on and had parked on the shoulder what was happening. He said that there had been an accident with a truck that had spilled it's freight on the road. He said 5 minutes would be all that was needed to clean it up. An hour and a half later we finally started moving again. As we passed the accident site, we saw men still shoveling the sand that was still covering one side of the highway. It is always an adventure here. You never know what may happen.
    The following days we had various meetings with her as well as with the other missionaries here in Autlan. It was a good time to hear of what else God is doing here in Autlan. We said our goodbyes yesterday as she headed back to Tecate. It was a blessing to have her here.
    On a different note, we are now dealing with colds. Jessie as well as Lilly are both struggling through coughing and not feeling very good. Jessie is doing better but still is on the mend. Our hope is that this will pass quickly as things get more and more busy through the holiday season. Pray for us especially the rest of us who are yet to get sick.

We have now added a page under blog updates where you can now access our latest newsletter. You click on blog update and you should see a drop down page that says "newsletters". Click on that and you will come to a page that says page one of October newsletter. Just below it you will see a download button. Click on that and you can download a word document that is our mail-out copy of our latest newsletter. Please feel free to download and print them off at any time to share with others. Hope this helps. Have a great night.

I don't have a lot of time to update right now as we are preparing for Willa Edmonds to come and visit us here in Autlan. For those of you who don't know who that is, it is the director of Tecate Mission's secretary. We are heading to Guadalajara to pick her up tomorrow and we will have several days of meetings. I did post a few photos under our photo page if you have a chance to take a look. Have a great day!

You are so busted……..or maybe not?

    The line of vehicles went like this: our car, police car, city bus.   A truck parked diagonal to the road was beginning to back out.  Behind him on the road was the bus eagerly waiting for his turn to go.  As always, everyone tries to use every inch of space they have here, even if they have no space at all.  Roads are so narrow and most drivers lack that “do unto others” motto.  When we move to Autlán, its one way streets with parking on both sides made us worry our SUV was just too big for this little city.  Then we learned how to roll down our windows and pull in our mirrors and yell at bystanders to assist in helping us squeeze our vehicle through tiny places.  When my parents visited, my mom would close her eyes while chanting, “I know you will make it, but I can’t watch.”  You also learn to creep out into slow moving traffic until you are such a nuisance that drivers have to stop and let you move out.  It’s just the way we roll.   So we were not surprised to see this vehicle try to pull out of a parking spot when we were all at the dead stop next to him.  We were surprised when he did not estimate well the fractional amount of space he had and ended up slamming into the side of the bus, shattering his tail lights.  The bus honked at him and he returned to his parking spot bewildered.  Don’t forget who was in the middle of us and the bus, the cop!  Yeah, this guy is so busted for ramming a city bus.  We waited with baited breath to see what the cop was going to do. Would he pull over? Would the bus pull to the shoulder? What? When we started moving again the bus just went on his merry way and the cop held traffic long enough to let the parked vehicle out and off it went.   The car casually took the next right and the cop went left.  That was it.  Andy chanted his familiar phase that he has been saying for 5 years, “Welcome to Mexico."