Amazed

Wow, what a day. I don't even know where to begin. Today I set up the Mac Lab so we now have 5 macs all connected to the internet. I will start teaching computer classes next week. Juan will be translating for me until I get good enough to teach computers in Spanish on my own. I am excited and I really hope the kids enjoy the classes. We will be offering classes covering everything from video editing to word processing. Thanks to all who made the Mac Lab happen. We are always looking for more donations too. Wink, wink.

Today we also passed out food. Every 2 weeks we pass out food to about 10 familes. The food bags consist of tomatoes, potatoes, beans, meats, and other essentials. We also help support some familes with rent as well. Some of these familes really needed help. The family pictured didn't even have enough money for gas so they couldn't cook. We covered their gas bill as well.

It is amazing what 20 dollars can do for some of these familes. Rent for one family was 23 dollars a month. That is a meal for me back home. One meal is rent for a month! It makes you think doesn't it? 20 dollars can also buy lots of food for these familes. If you want to help support some of these familes, please visit the Mission in Mexico website and contact us.

We are having a movie night tonight for the youth at the office!
My lunch today cost me $1.30. Amazing.

Miracle

I guess one of the cool things about doing mission work is just talking and meeting as many people as you can. This guy is the owner of a restaurant in Camargo we ate at (great steaks) and he was really friendly and nice to us. We spoke to him for a while. It turns out his parents live in Zacatecas.

Juan tried to minister to him and his testimony usually involves how he got shot and survived. It didn't work as well this time since the man had gotten shot 18 times and survived. He showed us his scars and said that he will be in the Guinness Book of World Records next year for most gun shots survived. What a miracle. Thank God or else I wouldn't have been able to eat that awesome food. I love how restaurant owners always tell us if we don't like the food, its free. So far everytime they say that, the food is awesome.

The girls that worked in the restaurant also wanted to take pics with me and Jerry. Ths is going to be a common occurrence Jerry says in Jerez since we're Asian. This is true since the last couple of times I went to Jerez, a lot of girls wanted to take pics with Bert and Fred. Hopefully we'll meet up with the restaurant owner again someday. He is a living miracle and even said to us that if we ever don't have any money, his restaurant is our home too! We've met some amazing people on this journey.

Update

We have finally arrived in Jerez. We got into town at around 8 am today and I am filled with relief. Of course we met a couple more obstacles before we got here. I will blog more about our last day of adventure soon.

Thanks everyone for all your prayers and support.

Devil Car

The Windstar shall go by no other name except the "Devil Car."

So we actually did leave on Sunday at about 2 pm. The car had taken exactly a week to fix and we've been staying at the Plaza Continental Hotel for that entire week. It started to feel like home. The car's engine pretty much got rebuilt yet . . .

It broke down again.

We were about 6 hours into the drive to Jerez from Juarez and it crapped out again. We tried to do "mickey mouse" repairs to it but it wouldn't get going. Jerry even suggested we bust a Little Miss Sunshine maneuver (push the car and try to start it). That didn't work either, but it was fun trying.

Thank God the car stopped only about 4 miles from Camargo, which is a fairly big city. We also, by God's grace, ended up right across from a farm house. There were no houses for probably 5 miles in either direction, yet we broke down right across the highway from that house. The guy in the house, thank God again, had oil for us and water. But the water and oil replenishing didn't seem to make a difference.

Jerry and Rubin tried to find a mechanic, but at that time it was getting late already. They went to a Pemex gas station and the man working there actually took them to a mechanic's house. But the mechanic was sick and sleeping and not able to come out so late at night. That is something that is awesome in Mexico. I keep questioning people's motives (they want money right!) and whether or not people are trying to con us, but apparently in most cases, people just want to help other people out. In America we've been trained to be so distrusting that its good to know that there are still good people out in the world. Of course, it's still good to be careful, since we've been duped a couple of times on our trip already.

There was nothing else for us to do but sleep in the car and wait until the morning. It was extremely dusty where we were and very windy at night. At times it felt like were in a sand storm. Nothing like sand in your mouth and eyes and all over you and your clothes. The shower I just took never felt so nice. It was also really cold like it always is sleeping in a car in the middle of nowhere on a highway in Mexico.

We woke up found a mechanic and the car is being fixed as we speak. It should be done later today and we should be in Jerez later tonight. It's about another 7 hours to my new home. Of course it didn't happen without a quick scare. When we woke up the other minivan, the Previa, didn't start. It turns out the alarm was triggered (by me) and it has something like a kill switch that activated when the alarm gets set that prevents the engine from turning on. We somehow managed to get it to reset. I don't think we're surprised anymore by these roadblocks.

Its fun to be around faithful people. Non religious types would say, "What a stroke of bad luck."
Faithful people wonder if the devil is trying to prevent them from getting to the Mission to do works for God. Or perhaps God is protecting us from something? We just don't know, but its interesting to think about. Just gotta stay faithful.

Original scheduled date of arrival: April 17th
When we will most likely be in Jerez: May 1st

One week of getting Devil Car registered. One week of getting Devil Car fixed. And that would amount to one heck of an adventure.

Something to be thankful for. We didn't get stopped and harassed at the border check. That was a big worry of ours.

Ruminations

I consider myself an Asian-American, but when I am in a different country, others only see me as Asian.

Do you ever notice how when people talk to their significant others on the phone, their voice changes to this cutesy voice?

I finally see a use for noise cancelling heaphones. It's so you don't have to hear other people's cutesy voice.

What do you do when you can't do anything about something? Nothing. Just trust in the Lord.

"Getting Into You" by Relient K is one of my favorite songs of all time. Check out the lyrics.


Oh, still in Juarez by the way. We've officially been here a week now. We're supposed to leave today. But we will see.