Oaxaca Update

(L) Here is Tanner and a new friend who had the same shirt as him.

(R) Tanner and Travis having a fun time with the kiddos. (Nice Sax!)

We have been very busy. The first couple days Rick helped Paul build some bookshelves for a lady in the church and paint safety fencing to put around a patio area the kids use for some schooling and playing. (See picture below). Deb and Travis went with Elaine to the grocery store and worked a lot in the kitchen cleaning the cupboards. This is the kitchen they use for the many groups that come here to do work projects. It is in this kitchen where we are able to keep some food for ourselves. We eat breakfast and supper there. We try and eat lunch (dinner) with the kids in their dining room. They eat dinner about 2:00 each day and supper is at 7:30 or 8. That was a bit difficult for us to get used to.

This is Deb with our new friends cooking banana bread. There has been A LOT of fresh bananas donated here recently and they had to be used quickly! Clem is the gal sitting at the table. (short for Clementia) We have gotten to know her very well. She is from England on a language program in which she has to spend a year in a place that speaks Spanish. It is fun to have her around to speak English with (even though our Minnesota accents and her British don't always "jive") Deb has been able to spend a lot of time with her and talking to her about why we are doing what we do. Please pray for Clem as she is so far from home. Deb has been able to jump in many places and assist with what ever is going on. There is ALWAYS something going on here, a constant flurry of activity, although it is difficult for many of the kids with no school right now due to the ongoing teacher strike which has turned more into a political uprising than a strike, calling for the ouster of the governor.

The other boys have been helping a lot with a cement project outside the front of the main building each day. And when they aren't doing that there is a lot of time to spend with the kids. Travis has been able to help organize their library here a bit and will be helping to install adaptive software on the computers for the blind kids.

We got to attend our first church service at the church building that is next to the home on Tuesday evening. It was VERY loud and very lively. But it was fun to be with fellow believers, even though we didn't understand the language much. They have church on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays (Sunday services go for 3 hours)

On Wednesday Rick was able to go with the young people of the church to visit the local public hospital. Hospitals here are a lot different than we are used to. They do not allow family in to visit the sick more than 1 hour a day. So there are sometimes hundreds of people sitting outside the hospital entrance just waiting...like a vigil for their family member. Many have come many miles to get here so they cannot go home. So the church brings them sandwiches and drinks and then prays for the family members outside. I was able to pray for a young gal and her father who were waiting for their mom...her surgery was the next day for cancer. It turns out they were Christians and were very excited that we spent the time with them. In fact the missionary gal from Wisconsin (Sarah Olla) who was with me made a very strong ongoing connection with this gal.

Please pray for Sarah Olla. She is organizing a city wide event of intercessory prayer for young people the first week of November. The week before Billy and Franklin Graham have a crusade here in Mexico. Sarah is on the cutting edge of ministry here in Oaxaca with the young people and is "on fire"...she would be a valuable minister in which to invest your prayer support!

We prayed with some other very difficult circumstances as well at that hospital...as we were about to leave a car drove up with a man laying in the back seat and someone doing CPR on him. Guys from our church had to help carry him into the hospital while we gathered around and prayed for a family member. We later found out that this was a teacher that had been shot in the downtown area by what they are calling "nocturnal death squads"...not sure who is doing it...but it really hit home how "tenuous" the situation is here...It is mostly a problem in the downtown area where most of the streets are blocked off by blocks, burned buses and sandbags...so we are still quite safe in the southern area where we are. But we later found out this man died that night...Please pray for peace in Oaxaca...











Rick and Alehandro (Alex) and Rich. Torrey and kiddos doing puzzles. Tyler helping with the brick project. There are several disabled kids (CP, deaf, blind etc.) We love interacting with them ALL!




This is where we are staying. (2nd floor of main building) We all have picked out a bed in this dorm. The bathroom is to the back of the room to the left. There is no hot water in that bathroom, just cold showers. There is one hot shower down stairs that we can use. It gets very hot here in the middle of the day but cools off a lot in the evening...the only problem is the dogs that bark a lot of the night and VERY early morning rooster calls. But it is quite comfortable.


Even Tanner has been getting "into" the projects...do you think he can lift this?

All the boys have been doing very well getting to know the kids here and learning a lot of their language. Torrey really loves the language interaction.

We have had the opportunity the last couple days to really enjoy some of the beauty of Oaxaca and the surrounding area. I will show some of these pictures later. It is late and we have another day of work tomorrow and some more shopping. We would appreciate your prayers for our return trip home Wednesday, we need a lot of things to come together for it all to work...God still performs miracles! We are all healthy and doing well! They are taking good care of us here.