La Visita del Gran Jefe

Pictures from la reunion de jovenes at Rancho Nuevo Park (which I wrote about the last time). 1. Some of the girls from my Sun. morning class opening their secret sister gifts, 2. playing fun games together, 3. the whole group

Fotos de una reunion de jovenes en un parque. 1. algunas muchachas de nuestra clase de los domingos con sus regalos de hermanas secretas 2. cuando jugamos algunos juegos divertidos juntos 3. todo el grupo

I have some 1. buenas noticias: Global Missions will soon have two new escuelas de predicadores (preachers´schools) here in the state of Chiapas! J.C. Enlow (director of Global Missions) has just completed 2. una visita in which he made 3. muchos planes for the new schools. David and I met him at the airport in Tapacula on Wednesday night, a city of about 150,000 gente that is about 7 horas de San Cristobal. It took us over an hour to drive to the hotel because there was so much 4. tráfico, but we later found out that there was a fuego (fire) on the street our hotel was on, and all the calles surrounding it had been closed off. So we left the 5. caminoneta in a parking garage and set out on foot to find the nearest hotel that would not be too expensive. Luckily we met the owner at the first one we came to, and not only did she speak perfect English, but she negotiated with J.C. to bring 6. el precio of the rooms down to our price level.

Then on jueves, we met with some of the members of the Tapacula church. We had told David to set up a meeting with the hombres, but many of the mujeres also came. I have a feeling that anytime someone mentions anything about a reunión, the entire congregation feels invited because they expect it to be another culto (worship service). But since the women can help buy and prepare food for the classes each week, it was actually good that some of them came. One of the first to arrive was an older man named Pedro, who had been visiting the church there for about a month but still claimed to be Catholic. When J.C. learned that, he immediately started preaching to him about the beginning of Christianity while I translated. Then David and Humberto (the preacher of their congregación) shared some more 7. versos with the man and explained to him about 8. bautismo. The man doesn´t know how leer (to read), but he was attentive to what he heard. About 10 minutos despues (9.), he made his 10. confesión and decided that he wanted to be baptized right then. So the majority of us carpooled about 20 minutes to the river, the closest location to baptize him. Here are algunas fotos of David studying with the man, Humberto baptizing him, and the rest of us singing 11. himnos along the shore:

We returned to el edificio around lunchtime and had the meeting up until about 4 o´clock. J.C. also spent some time preaching to the men, urging them to start new congregaciones. He was a little disappointed that there are 10 predicadores (12.) yet only 2 congregaciones for such a big ciudad. But I´ve also noticed that the mexicans use the word ¨preachers¨ much more loosely than we americanos. Whereas we only refer to the two or three men who preach on a full time basis and receive a salary as ¨preachers,¨the mexicans may call any man who preaches or teaches from time to time a preacher. José Luis even calls himself a preacher, even though he never actually preaches to the congregation, just works with the young people. I´m not trying to say that there´s anything wrong with so many men calling themselves preachers, I´m just trying to explain J.C.´s initial confusion when he thought that if there are 10 preachers, there are probably 10 separate congregations. At the congregation in Tapachula where we had the meeting, there is one main preacher (Humberto) and two other ¨preachers¨that help him. Humberto will serve as director for the Saturday school there, and all three of the men are willing to teach classes. They are really 13. emocionado about the school so that they can train some younger men to eventually take the place of some of the older preachers in the area.

J.C. then explained more (through my translations) about el dinero y las clases. Each of the Saturday schools receives roughly $350 each month. $100 of that goes to the director, $50 to the secretary/cook (who is responsible for keeping good records, buying and preparing food each week or delegating others to help), and the remaining $200 goes to 14. la comida for each semana. The students typically have one class in the morning, eat lunch together, and then have another class in the afternoon. As long as they offer each class for the correct number of hours, however, the director of each school has some 15. libertad as to the schedule of classes. At the Saturday school in Cacahoatan, for example, los maestros agreed that it would be better to teach each class for two hours for four months rather than four hours for two months. Then the secretaries and directors and I work together 16. cada mes to send the necessary reports to the Global Missions office in Mississippi. I know I haven´t talked about the schools in my blogs much to this point, but if anyone has any 17. preguntas about how the schools work or how the money is spent, etc., please let me know and I will do my best to answer those questions.

On Friday we left early and stopped on our way back to San Cristobal in David´s hometown, ¨Nueva Libertad.¨ Once again we had a groupful of hombres, mujeres, and niños eagerly awaiting our arrival (almost the entire congregation!) Most of David´s family still lives there, and his padre is the predicador 18. principal. However, the men were quick to explain that none of them ever received any ¨training,¨and that four of them (including David´s dad) volunteer to preach, but take turns. For precisely that reason we would like to start another school there! Nueva Libertad is a 19. pueblo of only about 2,000 people, but there is a much larger city about 20 minutes away where we hope to recruit a director, teachers, and more students. We still have some tiempo to decide who the director and teachers will be, where the school will be, etc. since J.C. does not plan 20. visitar them again until 21. el verano. He will first have to raise more support before we can know anything definite. The school in Tapachula, on the other hand, will start classes the first sabado in abril. After the meeting/worship service, we enjoyed eating lunch with David´s familia and a few of the other miembros at la casa he grew up in.

On Saturday we visited for a short time with the students who come to la escuela in San Cristobal from Larainzer, Sofi (la maestra de computación), and los estudiantes in Ocosingo. J.C. was especially pleased with what he saw in Ocosingo. He believes Antonio Sanchez has been working very diligently as 22. el director and as 23. el unico maestro for those students, as well. We have been averaging the highest turnout at the Ocosingo school, 24. normalmente between 20 and 25 estudiantes. Some of them, who live in the jungle, must first walk five horas the Friday before classes, then take a bus three more hours and spend la noche in a hotel. Because Global Missions does not believe in paying the students to study, these students pay for the majority of el viaje out of their own pockets. When la clase ended, Antonio invited us to stay and eat lunch with them. J.C. was ready to go, but David asked me to explain to him that if we didn´t stay and eat with them, the students would feel very offended. Another part of the cultura here is that if someone invites you somewhere (especially to eat), you regard that as a 26. privilegio and don´t make 27. excusas! Sometimes las mujeres spend all day preparing special food if they know that guests will be coming. It´s also not uncommon for 28. visitantes to stay at the host´s home for several hours, eating, talking, and drinking 29. café. Here is a picture of all of us eating together at Antonío´s house:

Los miembros in San Cristobal on domingo also enjoyed hearing J.C. preach about lost souls, 30. evangelismo, and 31. el principio of the church. We spent Monday taking care of some miscellaneous jobs related to the school here, and then he flew out early martes en la mañana. 32. Muy, muy temprano! We actually got to the aeropuerto in Tuxtla una hora before they even opened, and then J.C. had to wait another hora just to check in his 33. maletas!

By the way, if you don´t speak the same idioma as someone, screaming at them isn´t going to help them understand you any better! I had just gotten back to my hotel room on Thursday night when the 34. receptionísta called and said the gringo was saying something, but she didn´t know what. Well the whole time she was talking to me I could hear J.C. in the background yelling, ¨Wake up call! I need a wake up call!¨

Here are pictures from our worship service at ¨Larainzer¨(indiginous community) that I promised 2 or 3 blogs back. First, Dr. John is preaching to them in Spanish with one of their men translating into their dialect. As you can see, a packed house came out to see their new edificio!

The front of the church building, with some of the members leaving afterwards.

David speaking to everyone. Standing next to him are all the men of Larainzer congregation, who are outnumbered by the women about 3 or 4 to 1.

While we had the worship service, all the kids had a special class in the old church building (right behind the new one). Here is a picture of them singing some Bible songs for everyone afterwards:

Spanish words:

Title: ¨The Big Boss´Visit¨

1. good news

2. a visit

3. many plans

4. traffic

5. minivan

6. the price

7. verses

8. baptism

9. minutes later

10. confession

11. hymns

12. preachers

13. excited

14. the food

15. liberty

16. every month

17. questions

18. main

19. town/village

20. to visit

21. the summer

22. the director

23. the only teacher

24. normally

25. the trip

26. privilege

27. excuses

28. visitors

29. coffee

30. evangelism

31. the beginning

32. very, very early

33. bags/suitcases

34. receptionist

The blog is back and so am I!!!

I had a nice trip back, and while I really enjoyed my time at home, I´m also glad to be back among my new amigos once again. Can you believe I made it through an 18 hour bus ride without getting car sick or going out of my mind?? I´m feeling more and more like a Mexican every day! They hardly ever travel by airplane because they can´t afford it, so they are much more accustomed to long bus rides. By flying into Cancún and then riding the bus to San Cristobal, I paid only half of what a plane ticket to Tuxtla Gutierrez would have cost--and saved about a month´s worth of expenses!

I would like to take a minute to commend a few people. First, the "Donation Calibration" team -- Emilie Shannon, Natalie Arnold, Sydney Mann, Elizabeth Fuller, Gabi Simmons, Amelia Smith, Jessica Beckham, and Julie Beth Fluellan--for all their letters! It was such an encouragement to me to read all of them, and I know these girls are all going to continue doing great things for the Lord as they get older! Also to Sissy Pickler for all her help getting me more teaching materials to take down, to the ladies´class at MJ for the money they gave for me to buy teaching supplies, to Rosemary Fox for buying school supplies, and to Darlene Moore for letting me take so many of her own books and crafts. I don´t know if I ever mentioned it in previous blogs, but there are no supplies for the kids´class at church. So whoever teaches has to put a lot more time into preparing lessons, and the kids quickly grow restless because of the lack of teaching aides. So I am very grateful for all the extra supplies I was able to bring and know the ladies and kids here will be too. (One of my suitcases weighed 90 pounds this time because of all the books, but it was worth it!)

I especially enjoyed being home for Christmas since the Christians here don´t celebrate it. Because there are so many Christmas customs here related to the Catholic religion, the Christians think that by celebrating it they are being hypocrites, and not setting themselves apart from other religions. I understand why they don´t celebrate it, but I wish they would do a better job trying to understand why I DO celebrate it!

I´m going to do my best to remember everything that happened before I went on vacation that I never got around to writing about. First, on the Saturday before I came home, we had a get together with all of the young people at a local park. We had a devotional together, played several games, and ate hot dogs. They all thought I was absolutely loca for putting a hot dog on a stick and roasting it over the fire, but I equally thought they were absolutely loco for wanting to eat the hot dogs raw! Our girls´class had been participating in secret sisters, so I also used the opportunity for us to give each other the final gifts. They had never participated in secret sisters, and most of them really enjoyed it. We had the best turnout of chicos and chicas that we have had since I´ve been here.

Since I´ve been back, however, the teenager turnout has not been so good; José Luis and I have only had about half as many in our classes. But we are trying really hard not to get discouraged. We also plan to do a better job visiting some of the jovenes who have not been coming regularly. On Saturday we went to Tuxtla, where José Luis met with men from other congregations to start planning get togethers with teenagers from all the nearby congregations about every four months--similar to what a day-long youth rally there would be like. So we are both really excited about that and hope the teenagers will be, too!

Before I left for vacation, some of the girls were starting to talk a lot more and pass notes during the classes and worship services. I feel like I got what I reaped in dealing with that problem, because I did the same things when I was their age! I also feel partly responsible since I kept encouraging them to sit together when we first started having our class! But since they were becoming such a distraction to the other members, I taught a special class about the importance of showing respect and not talk¡ng during those times. Since we have still been studying about the tongue, it fit right in with our other lessons! Who knows if what I said had any impact or not, but since then they have also started sitting with their parents again rather than sitting together. Then this past Sunday, we talked about the importance of making spiritual resolutions and growing spiritually. I gave them the first week and a half´s worth of verses from the daily Bible so that we can all try to read through the Bible together every day, just like everyone at MJ is doing. I have a feeling most of them have never even considered studying the Bible on their own, so it may take a lot to motivate them to start. (But I hope not!)

The congregation has also been busy making plans for the new year. Several of them met last week (before I got back) to discuss the budget and the works they want to be involved in this year. One of the works that seems to be going really well is their prison ministry. About a month ago, our two prison ministers actually had the unique opportunity to perform the wedding ceremony for two of the convicts that have been coming to their weekly worship services. Since the men and women´s cells are in completely different parts of the prison, the newlyweds normally only see each other for a few hours each sabado. Yes, they did meet at the prison!

At the ladies´class last Sunday, someone asked me if it´s hard to deal with the constant tardiness. (If you didn´t already know, Latinos are known for rarely checking the time and arriving at everything at least 10-15 minutes later than they say they´re going to. Sometimes they seem to have the mentality that minutes really don´t matter, just the hours. For example, if you ask someone what time it is, they might say, ¨12 o´clock,¨even though it´s actually 12:25. Even weddings and funerals typically start 30-40 minutes after the time designated.) I feel like I didn´t answer the question very well on Sunday, so I´m going to try to answer it better now. Yes, sometimes it is frustrating, but for the most part I´ve gotten used to it. I´ve learned to always carry a book or something with me in case I end up waiting somewhere a long time. I´ve also learned not to expect people when they say they´re going to arrive. The tardiness bothers me the most at the start of my classes (especially if half of the students show up right on time and the other half shows up 10-15 minutes later). I really tried to stress to my students that they needed to be on time for every class, and for the most part they did a good job of that. David (our preacher) also tells the members to arrive on time for every worship service, and asks the men to come 10 minutes early if they want to participate. Unlike many other preachers in Latin America, he starts every worship service right on time, regardless of who´s there and who´s not.

Random Thoughts:
--Jose Luis´5-year-old nephew frequently asks me how to say certain words in English. Yesterday he started asking me about some new words, and José Luis asked him,¨Como se dice pollo en inglés?¨(¨How do you say chicken in English?¨) Fabian said, ¨Kentucky!¨

--My English class that meets during the week finished up right before I left, but I hope to soon start publicizing again for a new class.

--I mentioned a while back that I was going to add the Global Missions info. to my blog page, and I finally did; it´s in the top right hand corner.

--Andrew was right, your comments are a joy to read and such an encouragement.

So I wasn´t able to put any new pictures or Spanish vocabulary on here this time since I´m getting ready to leave for another trip, but hopefully I can get back into doing that the next time. Adios!!