hurch bought the San Bartolo mis
sion four years ago. It's a bit torn and ragged, the plan is to look into a patch kit to replace the duct tape repairs that held it together. The older kids have joined John and I in the soccer ring to play futbol de americana. It's been fun working down-and-out patterns with the kids with no common language to speak of. I've also been impressed with how well many of them can throw and catch - it's been more impressive than my attempts to join them in soccer pickup games after the camp is over each day! Today I scored three goals in a 5-2 loss in the late pickup game.
All three goals were into the wrong net. It got quite the smirk from Lis, who has been touting the superiority of futbol over futbol de americana.Our team has enjoyed terrific (and most authentic) Mexican lunches each day at the restaurant in Doctor Victor's home. Today was a garlic meatball soup that had egg buried in the center of each meatball. We didn't dare ask the source of the meat. Tomorrow will be garlic rabbit stew I've been told.
After lunch I was able to join John, Jorge (a local computer programmer originally from Vera Cruz, and now works as a consultant for the government in Puebla), and Lucy (an American missionary from Maryland who now lives in Puebla supporting mission trips and teaching English to locals) in an afternoon of visiting homes in the local neighborhood. The four of us piled into Lucy's car, one of the comically small cars one sees only on television footage of foreign streets. The first stop was to Senora Leanora's home. After parking, we hiked a quarter-mile up the hillside to her home (not an insignificant task in the altitude here) only to find that she had gone into town and would return in a couple hours.
We then drove a half-mile over to the pulloff for Senora Lenora's home. Senora Lenora's home is an annual stop for John. His first visit four years ago did not find anyone home. They only left a tract and an invitation to the sports camp on a large rock near their door. The next year John returned and found the family home. They remembered the calling card left from the previous year, and opened their home to John for a visit. I don't recall if it was that visit, or the one last year where the family (I believe it was both the husband and the wife) prayed to accept Christ. Today's visit was to deliver a health pack for the family, and to see how they and their three children are doing. John knows each of the kids by name, and greeted them with a full tickle contest when they walked up the drive. Their home was most modest by American terms, but John noticed it had a fresh new tiled floor that covered the dingy concrete slab of a year ago. The quality of the tile matches that found in only the best of American homes, a reminder that the cost of living here in Mexico can be most inexpensive in some ways. Some of the finest tile you will fine is manufactured here in the Puebla area, and are sold cheap to the locals. We visited only briefly with the family, but they warmly opened their home, and offered bananas to us. The husband remembered that the team has offered eyeglasses in past trips, and asked if we were doing the same again this visit. He will be bringing the entire family to Dr. Victor's for tomorrow's last day at the camp - the kids will join us for the morning, he will be fitted for a new pair.
These homes on the hillside are mostly cinder block homes with concrete floors and deeply rutted drives for as far as the eye can see from the road. Lucy's tiny car scrapped bottom just pulling off the street. The hike down to Senora Lenora's home was most interesting, as John led us down the wrong path trying to find it. After walking downhill for a good half mile John realized his mistake, and we then trekked cross-country through fields, rocks, ditches, and back yards trying to jog to the left to get closer to their home. At one point I thought we were certainly going to be attacked by three loose (and unhappy) dogs as we skirted one home's back yard - their retreat at the last minute was for me a testimony to answered prayer from those back home for safety. When we finally found and reached the home (from the back side), the family got quite the giggle over our chosen path and sent the kids with us on our return to show us the more direct way back. (It turned out the rutted dirt road had be rerouted since John's last visit, thereby clearing him of culpability in the matter) The return trip took us directly through another family's walled-in back yard, and just a few feet from a chained pit bull. The kids petted the dog, I gave him an extra two feet. The neighbors looked from their back window in wonder at the 'Blondies' (their term for fair-skinned Americans) meandering through their yard with local kids. I have to say there was a warm feeling in my heart to be a part of John's ministry visiting with these local families. Not many outsiders venture into these parts of the countryside, and the surprised look, followed by warm reception offered by them to John and the team was touching. I'm more interested in ever to continue learning the spanish language and be a part of future mission teams to the area. (Yes, Kraig, I heard your 'I told you so' all the way from Cheyenne, Wyoming!!!!)
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