Mountain Pastors Meeting Video

It was the dawn of a Saturday, nearly a year ago, that we loaded into the big red van for a day journey into the mountains. We drove hours, going up over the morning clouds, breakfasted in a chilly mountain village, and then descended into a valley where the pastor's meeting was to be held. Though I didn't take video of the beautiful drive, I did finally put together this brief video as a summary of the day.
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Hello Goodbye

Ok, so, after two years living here, there is something I have yet to figure out - that is how to greet people I know on the street.

Coming from the U.S. culture, I always used to say a passing hello. But often, instead of hello, people would say goodbye to me. So, I tried out saying goodbye, but they would say something like good afternoon. Other times I switched to good afternoon, and they're back to goodbye.

I played around with saying goodbye when I didn't really feel like talking to the person, but that wasn't real effective because I would somehow still end up in conversation with them :). I really cannot figure this thing out.

Though I have no great conclusion, contemplating this is an easy way to get the Beatles Hello Goodbye song in your head, so for your viewing pleasure, I take you back to 1967 (maybe instead of trying to adapt, I should just sing this song to people). :)
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Photos from the road

On July 4th, Jo Ellen and I hit the road for the Mission Staff Retreat.

Driving through Mexico is beautiful!

I forgot it was the Forth of July until we saw these flags as we entered Puebla. I was very excited, hence the picture, and I did a little "Yay 4th of July!" in my mind :).

In Puebla, we met up with short term missionaries, Bruce and Katy Dockter, and went to visit this pyramid in Cholula. Though it looks like it's just a hill, they say this pyramid is actually bigger than the ones in Egypt. I've never been to Egypt, so I'll just take them at their word :).***

The outside hasn't been fully excavated, but you can go through tunnels deep inside. Always lovely walking underneath tons of massive stone :).

I'm curious as to what's up there, but definitely not curious enough to go up by myself :).

Bruce and I hiked up to the top of the hill (or pyramid, I guess) where the Spanish built a Catholic church (um... power play? ;-). Although the hill didn't look that tall, I began to believe it was bigger than the Egypt pyramids when I was struggling halfway up those steps. In my opinion, anyone who attends that church regularly is crazy :).

The sight from the top almost made it worth the climb :).

I'll put this one in my advertisement for Cholula :). Pretty!

The next day, after 7-ish more hours of driving, we arrived at the hotel in Tequisquiapan, Queretaro for meetings and retreat. Mexico missionaries from Monterrey and Mexico City joined us there.

Two families are leaving shortly for home assignment, so we were able to take time to commission them as they return to the U.S. for a year.

For one exercise, we grouped up into districts to find out how who we are affects how we interact with our team. The Oaxaca team is obviously on top of things ;-).

Throughout the week, everyone was able to share and be prayed for. Here we pray for the childcare workers who were wonderful to come and help us!

Short termers were in charge of Fun Night. I kept saying maybe we should change it to "Game Night," so that it wouldn't be so much to live up to :).

But, thankfully, people seemed to have plenty of fun. I was so surprised how intensely people got into this particular game - "germ warfare."

It took a lot out of some people :).

Mandatory group picture at any large missions event. Very nice.

And then home again, home again. At the end of the week, people kept falling ill. One of the four effected was riding in our van - hence the lovely face masks :).

On our drive, we went past the famous Teotihuacan Pyrmids of the Sun and Moon.

I don't think this one needs explanation...

Ah, road trips in Mexico.

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***UPDATE 7/30/09: Here's some info I found on Cholula. It was from a website called "Blurt It" dot com, so I'm assuming it's legit ;-)

The name of the largest pyramid is the Great Pyramid of Cholula., which is considered to be the largest by volume and situated in Cholula, Puebla, Mexico. It had been built throughout generations, spanning over 2nd century BC to the early 16th century. The Guinness World Records affirms that this is the world's largest monument with an estimated volume over 4.45 million m3. This is about one-third larger in size compared to the Great Pyramid of Giza located in Egypt.

Ponderings

This evening I was washing dishes, and happened to glance over my shoulder to see a warm, sunset glow on neighboring houses. I smiled for the sunset and was glad to be living in such a beautiful place. I had already been feeling thankful to live here after reading an article on the great experiences that can be had in Oaxaca, so this just further confirmed that :).

However, it took me several minutes to see that, through window that was directly in front of me, was a view of the actual sunset. I felt almost foolish for having strained my neck to see the glow, when right in front of me were the rays. And I began to ponder, how often do I feel rightly glad and thankful for the good things in this life (the glow), but forget to take the next step of lifting my eyes the Provider of those good things (the rays)?

It is then, in lifting my eyes, that my soul is often lifted as well. It makes me wonder why I have not yet learned to make this a constant practice in my life - although, at the same time, I get the feeling it will take me at least a lifetime to truly get the hang of it ;-).

I praise YOU because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. ~Psalm 139:14

Who needs Windex?

This afternoon I was once again startled by a sudden bang that rattled my windows. I quickly realized that, for a forth time in the past few months, a bird had flown smack into my hall window. It makes me think of that Windex commercial - but contrary to that advertisement, my window is not clean at all. In fact, I can't remember the last time I cleaned the inside, and the outside is impossible to get to anyhow.

What is wrong with these birds?!?

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Anyhow, I just felt the need to share that :). Maybe I'll have to put up a sheet or something - to avoid such traumatic experiences in the future - for both me and the birds. I'll include a picture of the deceptive window, and some other shots from around my apartment just for fun.

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The window... dun dun dun...

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The lush green view out back.

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Same view at night with a full moon.


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These are the cuties, and sometimes lazies, who greet me when I come home each day. Apparently they all decided to close their eyes for this picture.

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The huge avocado tree in front of my apartment. Can you spot some? The dogs often get to use avocados as edible chew toys.

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There they are! See them now?

Recycling

This month our neighborhood was 3 weeks without water. It had to do with a broken pump or some such business, and we were told it would be fixed within a week. After 2 years in Oaxaca, I knew the "one week" goal was lofty and that we might be in for the long haul.

People began cutting down on their usage of water, and when necessary called a water truck to come fill their cistern for a high price. I cut down on my water usage as I knew how, but it took a Mexican house guest to show me the art of saving/recycling water.

As I flushed toilets with dishwater, I began to think of the other ways I've been able to recycle during my time here. Specifically, cans and bottles. I wish I could say it was my own idea, but to tell the truth, my recycling habits were kind of forced upon me :).

I began to notice that when I dropped my bags in the trash truck, the workers would glance through them to see if there was anything of 'value.' They have a crates and bags strapped to the back of the truck that various items are sorted into. So, to make it a little easier on them, I just put all my cans and glass in one bag and hand it directly to them. A side note on the trash truck is that when I have arrived a little too late to catch them on one corner, they will slow down the truck as they go by me so I can toss my stuff in - nice of them :).

I found the need to recycle plastic bottles when my landlords would not let me out the front gate with them. They would be sweeping as I hurried out to meet the trash truck, and stop me before I could get out the door. I was informed that, in addition to giving them the bottles, I needed to wash them out and remove caps and labels :). I have since learned that the man at the end of the block collects these bottles from the neighborhood, loads the back of his pick-up truck with them, and takes them off to wherever the bottle recycling land is.

And thus, Mexico has made me a better recycler :). I probably still have quite a ways to go, but it's a start, eh?

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"The LORD God put the man in the Garden of Eden to take care of it and to look after it."

Genesis 2:17

(Contemporary English Version)

Pyramids and funerals

I had great plans for a creative post, but I'm so wiped out from traveling today, I think that'll have to hold off for now. This morning, Jo Ellen and I made the drive from Oaxaca to Puebla - made especially beautifully green by recent rains.

We arrived in Puebla to meet up with Bruce and Katy Dockter at our hotel. Katy wasn't feeling super, so just Jo Ellen, Bruce and I went out to explore Puebla - and that's when the interesting afternoon began...

If you go to Puebla, you have to show the new guest the Cholula pyramid.
If you're in Cholula, you need to stop by the Puebla Covenant Church.
If you stop by the Puebla Covenant Church, you should really stop in and say hello.
If you stop in, they'll call the nearby pastor to come by to see you too.
If the pastor comes to see you, he will invite you to join him in the ministry he was pulled away from.

Today, that ministry happened to be joining a young mother at the cemetery where they just laid her 12-day old baby to rest. It sure felt intrusive for us to show up there - but I guess it comes with life here. In short term missions training, the key word was flexibility - boy has that been true. But, it was nice to see people from the church who I have met before and to have them recognize and warmly greet me (and here you kiss on the cheek and hug, where in Oaxaca you just handshake).

Tomorrow we will continue on to Queretaro, where our mission retreat will be for a week. I'm super glad to be in such a comfortable place for the night, so I'm going to get down to the job of resting :).