New tires!!

Praise God, we have new tires on the truck! Thanks to some very generous friends, we were able to buy 5 new tires (1 as a spare) AND replace both the interior & exterior terminals on the front passenger side. The truck drives like a dream. The roads around here are so very hard on vehicles. We thank those who made this possible!

No, donkey, no!

Many Tarahumara people value their animals above other things. One woman I know told me that her animals were more important to her than her own daughter because the animals helped her in many ways - fertilizer, barter for other things, sign of wealth. A little over 2 weeks ago, Dona Lola, who is 70 years old at the least, was giving salt to her donkeys. The donkeys were more than ready to eat salt and they knocked Lola down trying to get to the salt first. I probably should mention that Lola was putting the salt out on some rocks, and when she fell, she fell over the rocks and onto her left arm. It was not pretty! Jose Luis was in San Luis Majimachi at the time and he brought Lola and her son Mario out, and then they all went to the hospital in Samachike in Dwayne's big truck. On the way to the hospital (about 1-2 hours away), Lola began to joke about how onery the donkeys were and how they should take care of her and not the other way around! She was even laughing :) In Samachike, Dr. Mike set her arm and put in some pins. Jose Luis took her back to the hospital last Mon. for a check up. The pins will stay in her arm until the 1st of Dec., but she says that it hardly hurts any more. We pray that the Lord will use all of this to open Lola's heart to His love and truth.

Thank you, John Piper!

Living in the mountains of Mexico is a great experience. However, at times I miss good Biblical teaching in English (we do receive good Biblical teaching in Spanish). I have acquired the habit of downloading Nancy Leigh DeMoss' daily radio program called "Revive our Hearts." I also like to look at John Piper's website (www.desiringgod.org) regularly to read his sermons & articles. This week when I checked out his site for new items, I saw a blog mentioning that during the month of November the audiobook Desiring God could be downloaded for free. I checked out the site, and, after registering, I was able to download the entire unabridged audiobook free. If you would like to get it, go to http://christianaudio.com/desiringgod and just follow the steps listed. Let me know what you think after listening to it!

Kal Ho Naa Ho

"Tomorrow may never come" is a Bollywood movie that some friends of ours brought back from India. Our friends spent 6 months there investigating possibilities for going back as missionaries. They began learning the language and spent some time studying history, culture, etc. This movie is, I've been told, very typical of the Bollywood movies - over 3 hours long with several musical numbers thrown in for fun (and lots of energetic dancing). Although it has a couple of scenes that we skip when we watch it and it is in Hindi, it is an okay movie. I must admit that it is a tear-jerker. Watching it with Jaynie was a great opportunity to discuss some basic beliefs held by Hindus & Moslems (there are references to these beliefs in different parts of the movie). Also, it shows some of the differences between the people of the different regions or provinces of India. I must admit that I now want to watch more Bollywood movies as long as they have subtitles in English or Spanish (so I can understand the story!). And, this is a great way for us to remember our friends as they prepare to return to India next spring as missionaries.

Tarahumara discipleship

A couple of weeks ago, another pastor (Bro. Ernesto) who works in Creel and a couple of Tarahumara villages asked Jose Luis to share with some of the Tarahumara Christians and others interested in learning more about God. We spent Fri. evening through Sun. afternoon, Oct. 16-18, with about 13 Tarahumaras (10 adults) and the pastor, his wife, and 2 other Mexican missionaries who work with Bro. Ernesto. On Sat. morning, Jose Luis shared his testimony in Tarahumara and every single Tarahumara in the room was crying by the time Jose Luis finished. Following his testimony, Jose Luis shared the plan of salvation as presented in the book of Romans (the "Roman road") and 3 Tarahumaras accepted Christ as their Savior & Lord! (the others had already accepted the Lord). What a special time! Then on Sat. afternoon, the whole group went with us to Los Manzanos for Bible study. On Sun., we all went to San Luis Majimachi for church in Tarahumara (mostly!). We were privileged to participate in what the Lord is doing here - how awesome is that?
This photo shows part of the group at the Bible study in Los Manzanos (outside of Crucita's house).

Time to catch up!

Well, I have certainly not been very diligent at updating this blog and I apologize for that. There are no excuses. We have been busy, but no more than normal. We have gone through our share of health challenges, but also no worse than other people. So I will try to catch up over the next couple of days. Jaynie wanted me to post a photo of her new pet - Lulu May! We have had her for 1 week exactly and Jaynie really enjoys taking care of her kitten. Lulu has adjusted well and has survived being surrounded by the 3 dogs living at our base (Wishbone, our toothless wonder dog, can't do much more than scare her). My hope in getting Lulu is that she will grow up to be a great mouser. I don't like it when mice invade my home! Thankfully, we have not had any mice inside for a few months now.

Where to start?...

We began week 3 of homeschool today. Jaynie seems to be understanding her new books, classes; however, we had a bit of a setback last week in English. I tend to think it is my failure to explain the material well AND her lack of paying attention to the questions asked. It's a good thing that I have 4th grade English worksheets, and Jaynie is working on those for the next couple of days. She is doing really well in Saxon Math - it is very different from last year's Modern Curriculum Math.

As a bonus today, Henk's sister Ida came and taught us the basics of knitting. I took a class back when I was just a little girl, but haven't knitted much since. Then in March, when we were visiting Claremore, OK, Jaynie & I attended a 1-hour craft class and I learned knitting again. Well, with the first slipped stitch, I was stuck and didn't know what to do. So I took all of my stitches out, but I forgot how to start again. What a blessing that Ida took time to teach us! Ida makes beautiful sweaters - maybe next year we can graduate to knitting sweaters. But first, we will master the basics.
On a down note, while Jaynie and I were grocery shopping in Creel, someone lightened my load, so to speak. As I was getting ready to pay, I realized that my money bag (aka coin purse) was gone! Ooh, I do not like the feeling of being robbed! But, I am thankful that whoever took it, did not take my billfold with my important id's, etc. We are getting ready to go to El Paso for a few days next week, and we really couldn't afford to lose the $200 pesos and change, but I know that the Lord will provide what we need. I just need to keep my eyes on Him and not on my circumstances.

Finally, keep Jose Luis in your prayers. He leaves for Samachike bright and early in the morning for translation committee work. The committee has been translating the book of Acts last week, and they hope to continue that work this week. Jose Luis is also learning a new program by SIL on adapting a translation of the Bible into a variation of that language.





This is a view of the mountains with a rainbow that Jose Luis took on his way to Choguita of Norogachi to pick up another member of the translation committee.