A Little Lonely, But Keeping Busy

It has been 10 days since Donna headed back to the States for visits to her daughters. So far, I have survived. Three more weeks to go and I’ll be headed back for a two week visit. It will be good to see people, but I am not looking forward to the cold weather.

I went to visit a residential drug/alcohol recovery ministry called Monte de Dios. (Mountain of God or God’s Mountain). It is not too far from here. I had met the pastor a month ago and have wanted to visit. I only had a vague idea where it was so I rode my bicycle in that direction until I reached the end of civilization and chained it to a post. I asked a nearby older lady if she knew of it and she pointed up the hill. A narrow path over a small hill, down a ravine and back up again brought me to the Federal Highway. Some guys were there, so I asked them for help. They also pointed up the hill. After a little guidance from another guy who appeared out of nowhere, I found a narrow path leading up the mountain at a steep angle. I am just weeks short of 61 years old and I am not in bad shape for that age. Nevertheless, I had to stop twice to rest and catch my breath during the ascent. I guess I’m older than I feel.

When I reached the top, I discovered a flat, neatly kept area with several buildings. The pastor was just finishing almuerzo. We’d call it brunch (Mexicans have 4 meals per day). As we toured the grounds, I was reminded of the monthly “Sherry tours” at the Rescue Mission. They have a beautiful but small church building, classroom building, shower/washroom facilities, the pastor’s office, a dormitory with a capacity of 12 and a woodshop powered by a generator because they have no electricity. Neither is there running water. The kitchen is an open shack next to the dining room which is a slab with a roof over it.

The whole area was very clean and well kept. They have a foundation for another dormitory, but lack about $900 to put the roof over it. Walls are not required in this part of the world. The pastor/director is a wonderful guy. I plan to get to know him better. Next time I’m up there, I’ll take some pictures. I wonder if an AGRM mission somewhere would want to be a sister mission like sister cities and churches do from other countries.

I encountered the wheel chair alcoholic guy (“O”) early in the week. He was cleaned up and sober. I asked if he could say how the relapse happened. He said he didn’t know, but not to worry because he had it all together now. I’ve probably heard that story a thousand times at the Rescue Mission. I probed, but he told me he would never drink again. I offered to help if he ever wanted to figure things out.

I saw “O” again later in the week talking to a guy in an auto shop. He said he’d been looking for me because he wanted to accept my offer to help. It allowed me the opportunity to share my own testimony with the guy at the shop. At a certain point, I asked “O” to explain grace. He got out his Bible and he took it from there. I’ll have to look for “O” because he’s homeless, but I believe God wants me to help him.

I will be preaching again tonight at Pastor Salomón’s church. I am going to talk about holiness and using an old Paul Martin object lesson, a toilet brush, to illustrate the point. If I post a blog next week, it means they didn’t dump me in the ocean.

It has been fairly quiet around town because there are practically no tourists. The call it “Oct-hambre” meaning “Hungry October”. A few white faces have shown up as the part-year people are beginning to return. We look forward to meeting them. The weather is getting cooler. It got down all the way to 66F last night. Brrrrr!!!

Dios los bendiga a todos.

UPDATE: The toilet brush went over really well. On the way home I encountered "O" on the street. We had a really good talk which lasted more than an hour. He really opened up.