Ismael and I talked during our walk about a lot of things. He asked about the materials used in the construction of homes in America (wood is very expensive here, so most homes are made of concrete or brick), and we talked about the schools.
After we returned, our team met at the home of David (a native missionary) for devotions and singing. The kids shared some of what they`d learned so far.
The next thing on the morning agenda was to go and prepare the area where we`d be having Vacation Bible School on Monday. We walked about 3 blocks to an area near a huge water tower that is called El Reloj (the clock). There we mowed the area in the Mexican style - with hedge trimmers. Yes hard to believe, but we cut the grass around some slides and in other areas (and not a small area) with hedge trimmers and them manually picked up the grass and put it in garbage bags.
At the same time, we swept and mopped out a few salons (small storefonts - similar to a storage unit in the United States). Once they were swept and mopped, we began to put things in place for Monday and cut out small items for our use as well.
The puppet team and the drama team met to rehearse, and 4 boys went to a home to flll sand bags for a game (don`t ask - I don`t understand either). Then we gathered to have lunch. Darrol brought a grill and we had an American-style barbeque.
At 3:00 a number of the musicians went with Rod and rehearsed to help out with music. Josh played drums without drumsticks. He may have used a wooden spoon, but I`m not sure. (there will be drumsticks this morning). Since we had an abundance of guitar players, I played bass. It was fun, however at times it was hard to follow, since we had to follow all the words in Spanish.
Afterwards, everyone was pretty tired, so we all sent and hung out at Tina`s new apartment for awhile. At around 8:00 some of the boys and men attended a bible study for Mexican men at David`s house. We studied Colossians 4. My host, Ishmael, led the study. It was interestsing, in that, while my Spanish is not excellent, I could probably understand 50% of more of what was being said, at least in a general way. On occasion, Rod translated for us.
After sharing prayer requests and spending time in prayer, we all went out as a group for tacos (taqueria). I had two tripa tacos (I didn`t realize there were plain pork tacos) and a diet coke. Most of the time I sat by Ishmael and talked to him. I won`t pretend that my Spanish has improved signifiantly, but it seemed easier yesterday. I also think that Ishmael is learning my strenths and weaknesses and is compensating by the words he chooses.
Both Ishmael and Marta like to read and they have some famous books on their shelves by Bram Stoker, Alexander Dumas and Robert Louis Stevenson. We talked about books and other cultural things.
We returned home about 11:00 and sat down with Marta and had tea and coffee and talked for another hour and a half. This time the conversation moved towards spiritual things. We talked about the challenges of evangelism here in the Mexican church, bibilcal literacy of the people and our spritual pasts. They were both surpised when I told them that our church attended was between 375 and 400. Most of their lives, I believe they`ve attended chuches of less than 50 people, although I`m told that we may have 70-100 this morning.
We`ll be leaving for church in about an hour and a half. I wish I could upload pictures, but I can`t find the USB port on the computer and don`t want to move things around too much.
Till tomorrow,
Tim
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