July 6, 2021

Mexico 2017 || Week 1

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Blogging about our two weeks in Mexico is going to be super hard, because it is almost impossible to properly condense everything into a little blog post! Seriously, every year that we go back (this was our third time) we fall more and more in love with the people, the food, the culture, and the experience in general. Is it stretching? Yes. Are the culture + language barriers challenging? Yes. Is the enormity of the mission field overwhelming? Absolutely! But the spiritual fruit is so great and so life-giving. It is the greatest honor to our family to not only travel to Mexico, but to be a part of the Kingdom work that Jesus is doing there. We wouldn’t trade our time there for anything.

I am going to split the updates into two posts. (this is week #1 and next will be week #2) Again, please know that these updates merely scratch the surface of everything we experienced. There is no way to adequately give you all the testimonies. Souls that met Jesus for the first time! Hearts that were so
receptive to learning and growing in their walk with the Lord. And then there were those saints who poured out the love of Jesus to our family and challenged us so greatly by their love for their people + our Lord.

From the bottom of our hearts, we wish to thank the many, many people who cooked for us, hosted us, and blessed us in more ways than we could ever say. We are so unworthy and felt so humbled by the love y’all poured out on our family. THANK-YOU.

A HUGE thank-you goes to these heroes! Let me introduce y’all to our amazing translator + his family. (you can read about them + also our Mexico tour last year, here) This was our third year to work with Peter + Geneva. Last year we were thrilled with the addition to their team, little Isabella. This year, one year later, Bella had only grown in personality + pizzaz. The joke was that she was really the “necessary” translator, and her parents were just a bonus addition. =) We all LOVED having a “baby on board” the bus, and we have been going through serious withdrawal since we left Mexico and don’t have her anymore! 
It was also decided that once our family gets to the grandbaby stage, it would be ideal to have several babies born around the same time, since we don’t do very well sharing one baby among eleven people!
Catching some wifi signal and quiet Bible time behind one of the gyms we sang at.

German lessons at a church one afternoon!

What were the chances that we four would be in Mexico at the same time? Hailing from South Carolina, Iowa, and Mexico…spending the morning talking a mile a minute and soaking up the time together. Such a blessing!

Had to take a picture of this dairy farm! Just like home!
Driving in the middle of a spanish town and we saw one of our family posters up on a fence post! 

Mitchell and Peter (our translator) scouting out the best route to get our bus down this dirt lane.

Pushups? Or making sure we don’t high center crossing a certain hump?
Looks like both. =)

Discussing the improbability, near impossibility, and also absolute necessity of getting our bus through that narrow opening, so we could unload and set up in the park inside for our evening concert.

Mitchell, giving directions. “Okay, one inch to the left! Now approx 3/4 of an inch to the right….” =)

We arrived to find this welcome sign at the pastor’s home in Torreon! Such a beautiful welcome!
Josh sharing the Word in our evening concert. This was our only concert in which our audience was almost exclusively Spanish. Most of our concerts in Mexico are with the German Mennonites there, so we usually have translating done in German. But this night, our hosts were the pastors of a Spanish church, so they put all of our lyrics to our songs up on a screen, translated into Spanish, and the pastor and his wife translated all of our testimonies as well.

Mom had the privilege of leading this dear deaf lady (middle) to the Lord, after our concert! The woman on the left knew sign language, so between her and mom they were together able to share the Gospel!

Driving through a party, in town, on our way back to the pastor’s home after the concert.
Mexican feast!
Denver + Bella, exploring the cool stairway.
Some friends invited us over to their little coffee shop in the middle of town. We had a lovely few minutes there with their family, chatting and checking email while some of the ladies visited the local market.
Workin’ away! 
Well what do you know…it’s those people in concert again! =)

Some old ruins we saw as we were driving by. This is a very typical sight in Mexico.

Mom went out to a crepe place with the pastor’s wife from one of the churches we sang at. 

Practice time in a gym one afternoon while waiting on sound check.

Basketball game late at night, after a concert.
Tortilla soup. Of champions. With jalapeños and avocados and fresh Mexican tortilla chips. YES.

We had the opportunity to attend + spend the day with the church that Allison attended while she was living in Mexico last fall. (several of the women from this church also helped her as cooks + speakers at her retreats) Above, Dad taught a session for the youth group on Sunday afternoon.

Elizabeth is our #1 social bug. She made so many new friends in Mexico, and also enjoyed meeting up with former friends from the past two years!

This is the ultimate “Disco” feast!
Our younger three, helping some of our friends prepare Spanish Gospel tracts to pass out.
Playtime with Bella!

Late night Dutch Blitz and fellowship, with the pastor’s family, in Durango! We love these people!

 Family introductions!
We incorporated two German songs and one Spanish, into our set for this concert. It was a great experience to learn some music in different languages. Huge thanks goes to our amazing teacher, Peter! And thanks to our crowds for being so gracious and forgiving our many pronunciation mistakes! Pretty sure we provided some great entertainment, if nothing else. At least we tried. =) 
We will be posting these songs on our YouTube channel soon and will let y’all know when they are up!
Parked along the side of the street, to get a trailer tire fixed, for just $1.75. Definitely can’t beat these Mexican prices.
Denver has joined our haircutting crew!

This spread comes with basically anything you order at any restaurant in Mexico. Specialty sauces + dips with tortilla chips. And ALWAYS jalapenos.

Mom + Bella, watching the scenery whiz by. 

Rodeo time! Our friends got out their horses and did a little roping + barrel racing for us. It was super fun to watch them, especially the little nine year-old who was a pro at barrel racing.

The girls riding horses!
Allison LOVED being back with her adopted mother and sister! (see this post about her time in Mexico last fall)
Sunset in Mexico.
“…Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”
Mark 16:15

Tags

family, mexico, Tour


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Leave a Reply
  1. "Elizabeth is our #1 social bug." YES — yes she is! I was so impressed with her conversational skills and sweet heart when we visited with you last month! 🙂

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  3. German lessons? I have been trying to decide on language lessons with kids. We know some german, and it's part of my heritage. But I thought Spanish may be better since it is widespread. As travelers, have you found German to be a good second language?

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