I realized I hadn't posted anything about our trip to Mexico. We left from Dallas on Thu. after Christmas and arrived in Tamazunchale late Fri. night. Our purpose for the trip was to meet with the Pastors to fill them in on the changes that have taken place and what the vision is for the future. The Pastors as well as the people as a whole in the Huasteca are very shy and may not ask questions about "For the Fame of His Name" so Calixto wanted to sit down face to face with them to make sure everything was clear. They had a good meeting for several hours on Sunday. The kids and I just kind of hung out during the meeting, Catherine played a lot with Candido's 4 grandchildren...she had so much fun with them...she just couldn't understand why they couldn't understand her...but kids are kids and play doesn't require words so much! Christopher played with Pastor Chencho's son Jeshua (not sure of the spelling) they played Uno Spin, his gameboy and then football outside. Christopher is a bit more shy about playing with the kids but, after I called him over to play they had a blast with each other! It is so fun to see them interact with the kids there.

On Saturday evening we went to a church service at a new mission site-La Isla-They don't have a building yet and just meet at people's homes. We sat outside on plastic chairs and crude wooden benches. Lights were hanging from a tree, where chickens were roosting. Of course they did have a loud speaker system set up-what would church in Mexico be like w/o that?! I don't have any pictures b/c the cameras, both of them, were back in the truck which was parked down the road. Like every service-there are only a handful of people when the service begins but, by the end the place was full! Afterward they served us sac-o-wheel (phonetic spelling) it is a meal that is cooked in banana leaves and either cooked under ground or in an adobe type oven. It is not one of Calixto's favorite...I think it is ok, but it certainly is heavy...kind of like a hash of sorts with chicken...sometimes bones and all! It is a meal served on special occassions.
Below are pictures of where the new church building will be built. The first pic shows the holes that have already been dug for the footings the second shows the area. LeTourneau will be going to this site in March.

On New Year's eve we shopped downtown with the entire population of Tamaz and surrounding area!! It was Packed! Everyone was preparing for the evening's festivities. That afternoon the 4 of us drove down beside the river...it was beautiful! I don't think the people there realize how beautiful the area is. It was incredible the further we drove and the smaller the dirt road became. We walked down to the water and skipped stones for a while. I do have pix of that but they are on Calixto's camera and we can't find his cable to download them...I'll post them soon. That night we had a church service beginning at 10-everyone brought food and after the service we ate dinner-at midnight. While at the market we bought these huge sparklers for the kids so we lit those and played around till about 1am. We went to bed but the party on the streets outside our hostess' home went on until 8 in the morning!!! I think the parties only ended b/c it started to rain!
I was kind of nervous wondering what we do the next day, all business was complete, nothing was open and it rained all day, but it turned out to be the best day. Christopher finally got Calixto to ask Candido's sons to play Uno spin with him. We played from 11am til 10pm! It had gotten really chilly so they used the little charcoal grill to keep us all warm...Candido's house has no glass on the windows so it is hard to stay warm. The game turned out to be such an ice-breaker and we got to know them a lot better! Several families ended up stopping by for visits...it was a lot of fun, just hangin' out with everyone with no agenda or time constraint!
Since we were there over the holidays we got to have some traditional holiday food, like a punch made with all kinds of fruit and sugar cane...all the fruit are in big chunks so you half drink-half eat it and atole-a thick hot drink...mmm! And hot chocolate-Dana, I really liked it, maybe I will go buy some at the Mex store!
We need to make this kind of trip an annual thing! The drive to and from went well with no problems. The kids did pretty well aside from the usual arguing! Christopher got 2 new cd's for Christmas that we listened to over and over...I am Newsboys and Toby Mac'd out!!