Keepin' Our Feet Movin'

     This was an exciting week as we continued to pick up our feet. God put them on a path leading to some unexpected places. We met Nedero and his wife Dominga in the park. We enjoyed a conversation and offered to teach them English. We arranged to meet Wednesday morning at the Santa Cruz dock to talk about the time, or so we thought. When we arrived, he took us to his boat and said, "Get in." He wouldn't take no for an answer. We wound up (totally unprepared) out on the ocean for over 3 hours fishing with Dominga and 18 yr old son Nelson. He refused to take any money. We'll be going to his house every Wednesday for lessons.
     Our second Saturday afternoon class grew. We had a lot of fun as they learned their first (very) basic English. Their smiles are so heartwarming. A mom who didn't want to participate, was in the back mouthing the words. Some people are embarassed because they feel stupid.
     We met a man at one of the churches we attend. He speaks good English. He owns a hotel and told us that he has been wanting to start a recovery ministry. He said we could use a rooftop terrace for that and even for church services if we want. All we need is the congregation.
     We are making connections with some English-speaking future Christians, but only one Christian so far who wants to get together for Bible study. We have a story being published in the newspaper. Amistad church tried to do a service in English, but it didn't work. The pastor, Esteban, is going to start introducing us to those people.

PUSHING THE ZONE

     This  was a week of progress and stretching for us. We boldly invited two Mexican couples for dinner Thursday night. Donna cooked an awesome American-style dinner. One couple was the young lady who took care of us at the bank and her husband. The other couple are closer to our age. They speak a (very) little English as does Eddy, the banker's husband. After dinner and desert, we played UNO for about 2 hours. We laughed and enjoyed it immensly. It was a stretch because we are still so deficient in Spanish and because we just met, but it went very well.
     At the right, you see a picture of our first English class students. They are Jose, Jose and Josue (Joshua). We will be teaching this class every Saturday at 5PM. We kept it simple and the boys had fun learning their first English.  According to Pastor Damian's wife Rosa, we will have about 7 - 10 students next week. 
     We have been out nearly every day meeting and talking to people. Since the town square (La Crucesita ) is only .8 miles, we walk for the excercise, to save gas money and to interact with people. Several storekeepers now recognize us and we are able to stretch our Spanish and enjoy making the relationships. Relationship is everything and we are making as many connections as we can. We usually head for town in the morning for a couple of hours and then again in the late afternoon-evening.      Please keep praying for us to have success in all that we are supposed to do.

2 WEEKS IN

     Today is the first day of our third week. We are getting acclimated to the hot weather and beginning to enjoy it. We have been very busy meeting people and making friendships. People have been very open to our plans and very helpful.      At this point, we have made many more Mexican contacts than English speakers. Our first committment begins next Saturday 5PM at a Spanish church. We will be teaching an English class. We have two others with whom we'll do one-on-one classes. One is a fishing guide. The other is a store owner. Each know a lot of people. Our goal is to gain their trust and friendship which will lead to other open doors. We met a wonderful Christian couple who minister to other couples. We already feel very connected to them. It helps that they speak a little English too. We've also been able minister to a local couple. We can't give any details, but the timing seemed to be perfect.      The pastors we have met seem to be very receptive to our plans as well. Two churches have offered the free use of their facilities. One will be more conducive to the folks we plan to reach since it is indoors with A/C. We'll be meeting the pastor of another larger local church this week.           We finally got our phone and internet connected so we can begin to promote. We have a USA number which rings here. It is voip, so it is free. The number is 815.255.0660. Feel free to call us. Leave a message if we are not here.We still miss home and probably always will. Things are a little more expensive than we budgeted for, but we are trusting God to supply what we need. We'll get some photos posted soon.

Getting Started in Huatulco

We traveled by air on Saturday, 02/26. The flight was uneventful except that we arrived an hour late due to de-icing of the plane in Chicago. Boy, are we glad to leave the cold!! It turned out to be in our favor because the customs people were anxious to get out of there and rushed us through with no problems. We had a total of nine bags.

We got to our hotel and went to bed. A couple of days ago, we got a good shaking, but there was no damage. The epicenter was about 22 miles out to sea. We have been busily looking for housing every day. Although the room is only $25 per night, it adds up quickly, especially when you have to eat out every meal. We are thankful for not yet being accustomed to the heat because it curbs the appetite.

The bad economy has resulted in lots of empty places, but the local rationale is less business, raise the prices to make up the difference. We did find the perfect place, but it is a bit beyond our budget. They would rather it sit empty with the higher asking price than rent it for less, even with a year's rent paid in advance. Go figure.

We have already had a couple of opportunities to minister to individuals. That has been confirmation that God wants us here. It is Wednesday night as I write this. We are continuing to pray and I am fasting until the answer comes.

This is a very beautiful place and the people are wonderful. We have connected with several Christians. One special couple, Art and Bette, have so many similarities to us that it is uncanny. He even always says "Good morning" no matter the time of day like I do. He could be the Mexican "Bill", except that he has hair. Scary!!!

Please keep praying for the right place at the right price to appear. In spite of the challenges, we are excited to be here. We still haven't made it to the beach. That might be a while. I think it will still be there when we're ready.