It seems like we have been travelling for the past 10 days or, to be more precise, we have been out of our home for 8 of the past 10 days! Now, I am trying to do all of our laundry so that I can pack again. We will be going up to El Paso on Mon. and will be returning to Creel on Thur. What a blessing it is to have a truck that can make the journey to the USA!

We helped another missionary couple with translation for a guest teacher they brought to Mexico from the USA. I did the translating for classes on "Get the Word Out" taught by Mary Jean Powers. I would encourage all who have the opportunity to take this course to do so. Jose Luis and Jaynie also attended all of the classes and learned a lot from them.

After we returned to Creel, I went to apply for a Mexican driver's license. We had to go to another town about 18 miles from Creel (or approx. 30 minutes). The license costs $578 pesos or about $50 US dollars. I had to have a medical exam and then they sent me to the police department. The officer informed me that I would have to take a driving course in order to be approved for a license - even though I have been driving for almost 30 years, 13 of which I have done so in Mexico! Finally, he let me pay for the course and he gave me some booklets to study. Then we returned to the government office for the photo followed by signing on an electronic tablet. The tablet -like where you sign to use your debit card at a store - was not working correctly and my signature looks like a seismograph! Oh, well - praise God that now I have a Mexican driver's license.

Our Thanksgiving dinner was good - there were 29 of us for the meal. We only had 1 HUGE turkey and 2 hams plus lots of extras and goodies! We are still eating left-overs. We had a great day of fellowship and memories of all that the Lord has blessed us with during the past year. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving as well!

What a dog!

I would like to introduce you to our family's pet - Wishbone. We adopted him in May 2006 when he was just a puppy. His mother was a goat-herding dog for Marcela, my mother-in-law. He was the cutest little puppy and Jaynie loved him from Day 1. Then in August 2006, Wishbone disappeared. We do not know if he was taken or just wandered away; however, we looked for him around this area and never found him. Jaynie prayed and prayed, and finally told me that she just didn't think that God listened to her. We talked about how God's timing is not our timing and how we needed to pray that God would protect Wishbone wherever he was. Fast forward to February 2007, Wishbone wandered back to our base looking scraggly, dirty, flea-infested, and half-starved. He became the best guard dog for our house once we cleaned him up and fattened him up. He would always bark at any stranger who tried to get close to our front door. Everyone would ask me if he bites, and I always answered in the affirmative.

Then we noticed that his tongue seemed to hang out of his mouth almost all of the time. Marcela said that he was sick and would soon die. We kept feeding him and watching for any signs of sickness. Then, in April of this year, someone pointed out to us that Wishbone has very few teeth. This explains why his tongue hangs out - he has no front teeth to hold it in! Wishbone is very diligent at keeping stray cows, horses, donkeys, and pigs out of the base's property. We think that he was kicked by a cow or a horse several times for him to lose so many teeth. Even without teeth, Jaynie loves Wishbone and says that he is a beautiful dog. I call him our toothless wonder!

Welcome!

Greetings from the Sierra Tarahumara! or as they say here, "Kuira!"
As you can see this is a work in progress - so please bear with me as I learn how to blog and how to improve my blog.
Life here just outside of Creel is usually very quiet. I live on a YWAM base which is essentially a small farm. There are 2 horses, 3 dogs, and 1 cat on our base. We used to have several hens and a rooster until the coyotes decided they were easy pickings! So now our hen house sits empty. There are 2 cabins to the west of our base; however, they are not occupied year-round, just when they are rented by tourists. There are 2 other families who live on the base - the Kaemingks and the Heislers - as well as 2 single men. We are so thankful for the opportunity that the Lord has given us to serve Him here among the Tarahumara people. I will share more about life here in future posts.
We are preparing for winter - making plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas as well as getting ready to can some apples (thanks to our dear friends Jack & Marie). Hauling firewood for our wood-burning stove to heat our house is a time-consuming task for Jose Luis; the good thing is that he enjoys it! Jaynie and I have less than 3 weeks left in her school year. She will finish up 3rd grade by the end of November - praise God! I will give her most of December off, and then we will begin 4th grade in January. Speaking of school, I had better close and begin classes with Jaynie. Have a happy Tuesday!