Not a Good Sound

We like to have Spanish Bibles on hand to give to people who ask for them. You'd be surprised how many people in Mexico don't have a Bible in their house -- even Christians! Why? Well, reading is just not a popular pasttime here, for one. Many folks just don't read. Another reason, though, is that they're a little spendy. If you bring in a little over $200 in a month, it's hard to justify spending 10% of that to purchase a book -- any book! So, when we travel to the States or when teams come down, we try to get inexpensive, paperback Bibles which we can hand out.

That said, we had an opportunity to give a Bible away on Tuesday. The husband of a Christian sister in Reforma had asked Braulio if he could find a Bible. Braulio asked Doug, and Doug dropped it off for the man, Ernesto. Ernesto works at a local shrimp farm as a manager. On Monday, the shrimp in a couple of the tanks just started dying for no apparent reason. Not knowing what else to do, he drove a mile to the beach, got out of his truck and just cried out to God. He spent some time there, and when he returned, the shrimp had stopped dying and it looked like things were improving in the tanks. He praised God for the miracle and immediately went to Braulio to share what had happened and to ask for a Bible.

We left the Bible with Braulio on Tuesday, said a prayer for Ernesto and went on with our day.

Last night, Thursday, Doug and I headed into town for our weekly "date" (that's where a husband and wife go out and buy groceries together and do all the other errands that need to be done for the household). We got to go see a movie, too, so it was more "date-like" than usual! Driving home late, in the rain, we were enjoying each other's company and wondering if we would have electricity at the house when we got home, when suddenly we heard a funky clunky sound. It was not a good sound.

Our first thought was a popped tire, which would have been a bummer, but when the engine died and steam came up, we knew it wasn't a tire. Here's where God's provision over every part of our life became (once more) evident:

• Along the last 10 mile stretch of road to our home there are exactly 3 places to pull off the road safely in the rain. The rest is all steep shoulder and 6 inch deep mud. The Bad Sound happened about 50 meters from one of these pull-outs.
• Traffic along this road at night is scarce. People traveling from Las Glorias after 10pm are usually drunk and people traveling toward Las Glorias...well, you generally wouldn't want them to stop and help you.
• There was a truck about 2 miles behind us which drove past and then pulled over when the driver saw us with our hood up.
  
• As we stood in the pouring rain thinking, "Who is this guy, and do we trust him?", the man rolled down his window and said, "Douglas, right? I'm Braulio's friend. I'm from Reforma."
• "You're Claudia's husband!" we said.
• Ernesto's truck had 4 wheel drive, so he could pull us up the muddy hill and back onto the road and he even had rope to haul us with. His rope and Doug's chain gave us just enough distance to tow -- if not comfortably -- at least safely!

So, what was the bad sound? I have no idea. We're leaning toward blown engine. Esteban's coming over later and they're going to tow the van to a mechanic in Palos Verdes. Pray that the mechanic will be able to fix the problem, that parts will be available, that God would supply the funds necessary to fix it. Praise God for all the ways He's already supplied in this situation and praise Him that now we have a friendship with Ernesto. He said that he was wondering where we lived and tried to find our house to thank us for the Bible. Now he knows where we live!

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. -- Romans 8:28

Fun Fact Friday -- Cookies!!!!

I've been negligent in my Fun Fact Friday posts, but I think I'm getting back in the swing of things!!! Here's this week's fact.

When I was a little girl, my mom took me to Brown's Bakery about once a week and let me buy one of these little guys:

I have fond memories of all the little Gingerbread men lined up hand to hand and toe to toe -- each with different colored frosting. Mrs. Brown used the leftover frosting from her cakes to decorate the cookies, so sometimes they were rainbow colored. I especially loved those!!! They were yummy, too!!!

Well, a while back I discovered a new Mexican cookie: the cochi.

Yes. It's a pig.

Just like every "man" cookie you see in the US will probably be a Gingerbread Man, every pig cookie you see in Mexico (or at least in Sinaloa!) will be...a Gingerbread Pig.

"I am the Gingerbread Pig, I am. I can grunt. I can, I can!"

Hmm. It doesn't have the same ring. But it was definitely tasty!!!

Do you have a fun fact to share? Link up below!!!

Wordless Wednesday -- Clowning Around!

Well, it's pretty much wordless!

Here's us being clowns at a birthday party in Reforma last week. We did the "Jesus is the Key to Eternal Life" drama.

Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Reaching out to Families

One of the ways our family has been reaching out to the families around us is by offering free parenting classes. We’ve recently started another session in a village about 30 minutes from our home. This is our 4th week of classes and the response has been wonderful!

Sarah, Caleb and the rest of the gang are in charge of “childcare” during the classes. The first week, they had about 25 kids show up. Afterward, Sarah asked the pastor’s wife how many kids should be there each week. Eugenia said that there should only be about 10. Apparently the neighbor kids saw a fun thing happening and wanted to be included. Sarah laughed and said that she’d have to work at keeping it interesting and fun, but not so fun that every kid in the village wants to come!

Originally, seventeen people signed up to take this class. It’s now grown to 21 – that’s almost half the church body! We’re excited about what God’s going to do in the lives and homes of these parents and grandparents as they put the Biblical principles into practice.

Rebecca’s started a pretty-much-weekly sum-up of the main points of the lessons. If you’d like to check it out, click here to visit her blog.

Pray for these families! We know that raising children isn’t easy. We can all use all the help we can get, right?! Also pray that God would open doors for another class in Las Glorias. Several couples have expressed interest, and several single moms, too. Pray that we would be able to find a day when all of those who are interested can attend the classes and that God would provide the materials needed!