ON OUR WAY HOME!

Woke up to another adventure today. My plans were to finish writing letters to all the people here in the village and finish taking family pics. God's were different. Nichole came to the cabin and woke us up and said she was headed to the hospital to see Josephine who was to have surgery this morning and...it was my turn to go! Well, that meant I had to pack pronto! and tell everyone goodbye, pronto!

So off we were to the community hospital. Josephine is a little lady in one of the church villages who has been sick about a week. She wouldn't eat, she was very lethargic. She thought she was diabetic. Her husband brought her to Nichole and Nichole took her to the doctor. (She is 47 with a 5 year old little girl.) The story is that she married, had 7 sons and her husband wanted a daughter. Okay, one more try! Anyway, the doctor took blood tests and couldn't find anything, she came home and the doctor said he would come in the morning. Dr. Morales came and examined her stomach and discovered what he thought was a huge tumor near her intestines. Nichole took her to the private hospital and they transferred to the community hospital because we couldn't afford the private. Turns out her intestines had alot of blockages and burst and her organs were becoming infected. She had toxic shock syndrome. I just came from the hospital and she had surgery early this morning.

She is stable and has two more surgeries but doing well. I got to go in and see her. She is a miracle! God saved her life! Her little girl will still have her mommy! Praise God!

Right now, we are at a nice restaurant and going to meet with the doctors for lunch. They are friends and help Nichole out a lot. There's internet so I had time to send this.

We will be getting on the bus sometime today and leaving Huachinango for the border. It's a 12-13 hour ride.We'll be spending the night in the bus and should arrive at the border in the morning. When we leave Mexico, we will pick up our van and trailer and load up and head home, driving all day and night and with Godspeed, we'll see you Friday.

Monday 12/20/10

What a day! We just got home from a coffee shoppe in town that we had visited earlier today when we were posting our blogs. Eric ran over to see if he could get us coffees and came back with a free tea because their espresso maker was down. The owner wanted us all to come back there anyway and his wife made coffee on the stove with cream and served us for free. We talked with him a little bit, his name is Bito, and discovered he knew we were with Jason and Nichole and has much respect for what they do. When we got home this afternoon, he had already called Jason and invited us back tonight for coffee because his machine was up and running. His wife, sister and children were there and made us the nicest cappuccinos. Very uptown. Upon talking with Bito, we discovered that he is changing his philosophies about life essentially because of Jason's life. He says it's what people do not what they say that matters. When he met Jason 4 years ago, he didn't understand why Jason did what he did. He just couldn't comprehend it. Bito is a salesman for the big corporation, Hobart, which among other things, distributes Mexican coffee around the world. Life has been about getting ahead for Bito instead of just surviving. Anyway, Jason has given him food for thought and God is definitely speaking to him. He was VERY honored to have us in his cafe. They fed us and gave us coffees for free. They refused to take money, it would take their blessing away. I took pics of him and his family. They are Catholic but nearing becoming Christians. They have four children including a late in lifer baby named Kate (2). Imagine that!

Before we left town, there was a man that Sed, Joel and Danny knew knocking on the pharmacist's store door which was closed and locked because he was looking for medicine for his wife and daughter who were sick. So, once we got home, Nichole (who never tires) left out again at 9:30 to deliver medicine to his house. Today, Nichole and Jason left about 7:30 a.m. to see the old grandmother and pray for her and then to take a lady of the church to the doctor for tests because she's really sick (We found out today that she's not diabetic which was a thought, it's something circulatory and the doctor is to make a special visit here tomorrow morning. Her blood pressure is 90/40.) After Nichole brought her home, she left again with Mala to pick up Julia and figure out insurance for the hospital. She brought a single sister with 4 children back with her to have her show us some of her handwork to see if we wanted to buy some, which we did to help support her. They will be gifts for people back home. Oh, and when we got home from the coffee shoppe, we found Julia crying and out of bed. Erasmo started sniffing thinner and she was really upset. The men were talking to him as we arrived and we tried to encourage her and get her back off of her feet.

Monday 12/20/10

Buenos Dias! It is a sunny day, praise God! The people here are so friendly I've made my mind up to carry some of these traditions home. When you go to church, which is every night, each one including children come and touches your hand and greets you with a smile and the appropriate greeting depending on what time of day it is. Anytime anyone arrives at your house, you offer something to drink and eat, as well. I was talking to Joel yesterday as he and Daniel and Sed had just gotten back from their two day trek to evangelize and visit the churches Sed started, (you'll have to ask them about their incredible adventure) and we asked Joel the differences in Africa and Mexico. He said in Africa it's all about money, but here, the people are friendly and very giving, totally different. The people are a delight to be around. They are poor but all give out of their poverty. I don't think I have every given out of my poverty (or need) because I'm not poor.

Julia is coming home today to be on bed rest. Thank God that she became stable! She will come and have to stay in bed, so the ladies here will have to pick up the slack. Julia is very steady here and works all the time. She has little Melissa whom she takes very good care of and all the duties around here. Aubrey wants to stay here longer so maybe she will be able to help out.

Everyone here seems to be doing fine. Asher is working hard every day, of course. The past two days, Asher has taken up big Manuel which means following him up and down the path a hundred times while Manuel pushes a wheelbarrow full of wood. Otherwise, Manuel would be running away or threatening his grandmother. Today Joel took him up and it is funny because Manuel ran away from him and Joel tackled him.

Children's church was a blast. I think Mala already told you about it, though, so I won't bother here.

Adios, for now!

Saturday 12/18/10

Last night Julia started to have birthing pains while the men were gone to church and Nichole and the girls took her to the hospital. She is not due for another 6-7 weeks so it's not good. They visited her today and she hadn't eaten since they took her last night in case she needed to go into emergency surgery (c-section). So Nichole talked to the doctor who had been busy delivering two other babies and he said they would give her something, but Julia was crying. By the time you get this she will probably by home or have a c-section or I'd ask you to pray.

Last night while I was making tortillas, little Manuel came up and gave me a kiss. The boys are not naturally very affectionate and they have shied away as we have tried to hug them, but we persist anyway and they are starting to warm up to us. That was a big step for Manuel. He kinda did it when no one was looking because it's not very manly to do. Natalie continues crave affection from me, always asking me to pick her up (she's 12 and solid as a rock!). Little Carlos and Pablo are very attention starved as their mother, Carla, is only 15 and can't always give them what they need. We share a room with them so they get lots of attention from us.

Today was children's church and it was a ball. I think there were around 70 children here. We had prepared bags of candy and balloons for each of them, a craft, a song, skit (about the birth of Jesus), and games with balloons. We started around 10:30 and were done around 2:00. Each of the children wrote John 3:16 on a heart cut out of pretty poster board and laced it with ribbon on the outside where we punched holes. Even the adults had a great time watching all the relay races the kids did with the balloons. The authorities came by the other day with a lot of foodstuffs for the village. There was a lady who came also and told her husband later about the village and her impressions (which were good) and he bought two huge piñatas for the kids and had them delivered. So the kids also did that. It was a great day!

I know the children's Christmas program is tonight and I am missing that right now. I know my kids had some skits planned, but Ashima said she'd record them for me. Today was very overcast and eventually the fog rolled over the mountains and you can barely see 50 yards from in front of you. It's been misty and damp. Hoping for sun tomorrow. J

Friday 12/17/10

It's 8:10 a.m. and breakfast is over. Nichole made yogurt and we had corn flakes with it for breakfast along with coffee and cookies. Nichole is always taking care of her large family; making sure the meals are always prepared and everyone is fed. When we went grocery shopping Wednesday, she brought home gifts for the children here; pretty tops for the girls and shoes for big Manuel (his boots had holes in them).

Speaking of Manuel, he got into trouble yesterday. He seems to have been keeping a low profile, but yesterday something must have happened. He started down the driveway (Jason and Nichole were in town) and Jasmine hollered for him to come back. I told her to ignore him and, and sure enough, he came back within 15 minutes. A little while later, he started down the other driveway and he was gone awhile longer this time. He came back, though, and apparently, did something he shouldn't have. Jason wanted to discipline him but the grandmother wouldn't let him. She interferes with Manuel all the time. He doesn't come eat with everyone else, she saves him food and he comes whenever he wants. Anyway, the grandmother said they wanted to leave and go back to the streets and Jason and Nichole told them they would take them and give them money for the bus ride. Everyone was getting ready to go to church nearby and the grandmother apologized and asked forgiveness, so they are still here. J

Meanwhile, I wasn't feeling too chipper, so I stayed back and Sed stayed with me while everyone else went to church about 6 p.m. Carla, Erasmo and Julia also stayed behind and were taking showers. After they were done, the boiler (you make fire in it to heat the water for showers) caught on fire and lit all the wood on the ground somehow and the fire crept up the wall and caught some electrical wires on fire before Sed noticed it. He put it out and then came to check on me. Sed has a very sweet young man. He came and told me what happened, asked me if I needed anything, offered tea twice and just wanted to make sure I was okay. When Nichole got home she said that it was good Sed stayed back or everything would have went up in flames.

They brought Anna (the little girls Dassi wrote about) home last night from church. She was there with her Uncle's family and asked to come spend the night, so she is staying till Saturday. She seems to be doing well and Jasmine has taken her up as they are good friends. Jasmine is a little servant. She is 9 and does whatever her mother tells her. When the old woman was here, she would feed her and check on her, she sees everything that goes on around her and carries the burden of it when her mother is gone. It is quite something to see her try to tell the "ninos" what to do!

All the women here are always busy and working; doing laundry (all by hand), cooking (over fires making dozens of tortillas), cleaning (trying to keep the mud and dirt at bay), giving children's baths (not an easy task if you remember the early days at Hadashah!). Carla (a wee bit of a thing no bigger than Anna Pom) has the two little ones and in the evening, before dusk, she starts the fire to heat up the water and then washes one, runs him up to the cabin, runs back, washes the other, runs him up to the cabin and dresses them both. The other ladies only have one child each. Julia has Luis (1) and her husband is Erasmo. Luis is not his child but Erasmo is Christian and treats Luis as his own. Julia is very beautiful and is Carla's older sister. They had a horrific childhood and it is a process of God healing them. I am wanting to share my background (since I had two boys out of wedlock to two different fathers) with the girls and Nichole said that it would be a good idea. Maybe Saturday.

Manuel's grandmother is a very hard worker, on her feet all day cooking, cleaning and doing laundry. She doesn't have a lot of teeth in the front and she is very wrinkled all over (I will get a picture of her for you) but she has a very sweet smile and disposition. Everyone is warming up to us now and the little ninos even let us hug them when they shied away before. The ninos love to play and are always trying to joke with us and speak English.

We are also getting ready for children's church. When we were in town, Wednesday, we had to buy everything for the crafts we had planned all over again because we had to leave it all in the trailer at Raymondville. We bought colored card stock to cut large hearts out and we'll put hole punches all around the edges so the children can lace them with the ribbon we purchased. Then they will copy a scripture from the chalk board onto the heart with crayons. We also bought candy and small bags of chips and balloons to put in individual bags for all the children at children's church. They will have a heart and bag to take home with them. Mala is also planning one of her famous skits for the children. J

Just got news we were going to be able to get to town to post our blogs! I'll write more about each one here next time.

dossie.rcv@gmail.com

Hi, Folks! Well…I have had a hard time communicating through internet. Yesterday we went to town and I wrote a blog to catch everyone up and as soon as I pressed the publish button, the internet went down. Okay! That was rough...so, I'm not going to try to recover that, I'm just going to start from today.

Mala has a really detailed blog which is a little different from mine and she's been more successful in posting, so you can check hers for the details of Mon. through Wednesday.

The children here are carving a place into our hearts. Jasmine, Nichole's daughter, fell asleep on my lap tonight, and Natalie, the little 12 year old wants a mother so badly. She wanted me to pick her up and then stroke her hair. She misses her mom and little brother. She lives here with her brothers, Javier and Manuel. Manuel and Natalie are twins. I wish I could bring them all home. Tuesday and today I helped Jasmine with her school work. She is a multi-tasker like her mom and hates to sit still, so mostly it's an exercise in staying focused. J I would like very much to teach the Mexican children. It is a frustrating thing to not know the language.

Oh, Sunny Day!

It is Tuesday and there is quite a lot to catch up on! Well, obviously we were able to ride a bus to the village because we are here!. We loaded our luggage onto the bus in Orange, Mexico (I think) at 4 p.m.on Sunday and arrived in the village at 8:30-9:00 a.m. on Monday. After many hours and several bus stops, (they make you leave the bus for a while each time) I was beginning to hate Mexico because it was so flat and dull looking and bus stations and border towns are all I had experienced (which are pretty rough) until…I woke up in the mountains. Breathtaking! The village is nestled in these beautiful mountains which are terraced by trees and plants which are farmed by land owners. The bus seemed to be climbing the mountain for hours as we drove into the clouds before we finally got here.

We found spots in the new girls' dorm to put our stuff and sleep. There is no heat here at all and it was cold, damp and rainy yesterday, so there was plenty of mud. It seemed impossible to get warm unless you could cozy up to one of the cooking fires. There are two outside- one with a griddle to make tortillas under a roof-over and one with plastic strung over top for huge pots-and the propane stove inside which is usually covered with large cooking pots. We had sweetended oatmeal for breakfast with coffee yesterday and today and noodles and carrots in tomato sauce yesterday for lunch. Today we had beans, potatoes and tomato sauce with tortillas, of course. J

We four ladies share a room with Carla (who is 14 and has 2 children, Carlos (2) and Pablo (1); Theresa (16), Natalie (13), and an old woman who just arrived the day before we did. She is bedridden (her hands and feet are crippled and deformed with rheumatoid arthritis, I think) and we take turns feeding her and helping her use a bedpan. Just today, Nicole had the doctor's wife come out and catheterize her. Tonight, Nichole informed us that we would have to take the old woman back to her shack where her husband lives because they could be sued if she dies here in the village.

Carla's sister, Julia (18) is married to Erasmo and she has a little girl named Melissa (3) and is around 7 mos. pregnant. Daya (17) is married to Javier and has a little boy, Luis (1ish). There are three little boys here, the "ninos", Javier (11), Lencho (9), and Manuel (13) (not to be confused with big Manuel J). Lencho is Daya's little brother, Javier and Manuel are brothers to Natalie.

P.S.

We talked about a couple options.

1. Take a bus to the village @ $60 a person and leave everything here
2. Rent a U-Haul or something comparable and re-load everything AND get a hotel for the night ($25 a piece) so we could get the original title over-nighted to us which probably wouldn't arrive till Tuesday so that would be 2 nights in a hotel. Then, we could cross with the title and a different trailer.
3. God works a miracle

There and Back Again!

I say the famous words, "There and Back Again", because we went through all the passport rigamarole and checked out great, but.......we weren't okayed to cross because we didn't have the original title to the van or the title for the trailer (which would have to be in someone's name here anyway). So they made us turn around by entering Mexico and getting in a long line to exit Mexico. :) Let the fun begin! Also, we had given the $1,600 that was collected in the village for children's church and matresses that Nicole bought to Jason this morning which he promptly turned into pesos and he went to the washroom while we were taking care of our passport business and left his bag there. When he realized this, he ran back as fast as he could and someone had already taken the envelope out of his bag. This is terrible because Jason feels REALLY BAD. We are trying to get him out of it to no avail so far. He said he "will not be very social today". This has taken him out.

However, we don't care about the money. It's all God's and I'm sure whoever has it needs it worse. I do pray it is used for a good purpose. Who knows? Maybe God will induce the thief to return it. The possibilities are endless. Is this a recipe for God to show his awesome works and powers, or what? Now we are back in the good ol' USA, and our next plan of action after prayer is to try to cross at another bridge. Jason and Asher have parked the van and trailer outside of a McDonalds (where everyone else is taking advantage of good coffee and great wifi :) and walked to the bridge to talk to officials.

So, Mala, Aubrey, and myself are currently blogging as fast as we can to get the news out. I'm sure there were be another post before the day ends to update everyone as well. There is a competition for blogging going on right now. I feel like a reporter who has the "scoop" and am hurriedly trying to commit to post....

Traveling

Well, we made it to Raymondville which is not too far from the Mexican border. Loooonnnngggg drive, but good. Very nice traveling companions :) No problems at all! We left at 9ish Friday night and arrived at 5ish Saturday evening. We are still looking at about 12 more hours once we cross the border to get to the village.

We freshened up at the hotel, La Quinta Inn, (nice hotel) and went to Subway for a quick dinner and back to hotel lobby to meet up with Jason. Weather is warm, it was actually hot all day, we ran the a/c in the van. Decided we would meet up with Jason at 5 a.m. in the morning and head toward the border. Jason will ride with us and probably do most of the driving. He took a bus up here to meet us.

This is about the time I'm wishing Jeremiah was here with me. :) We will be praying for safe entry into Mexico without much attention from the border guards. Our trailer is PACKED and, boy, would that be alot of working unpacking!

Stay tuned....

This is the Big Day!

Well, all preparations have been made, everyone should be packing today. I'm sending out last minute Christmas greetings, picking up Jeremiah's RX at WalMart (a wife's work is never done :) and putting the finishing touches on my packing. I'm trying hard to keep everything compact. The closer you get, the more stuff you think about bringing to people in Mexico that would make their life nicer. :) I'm going to pick up some Village coffee today for the Village!

We are looking forward to meeting everyone there, having as much fun as we can pack in with the kids there, and taking care of Nicole and Jason. Hopefully, God has taught us all to be good followers and lovers of Himself more than ourselves. :)

I'll keep you posted of our travels, as well. I've brought a little Tylenol PM as I never sleep while riding in vehicles, and we'll be driving all night. I'd like not to be worn out when I get to the Village in Mexico.

Love, Dossie

Just Getting Started

Here is my first post. Had a meeting last night with everyone headed to Mexico, and Dassi was there to answer all our questions! There were a lot! Thank you, Dassi, for coming. It looks like we will be headed out Friday night around 9 p.m. ("probably," says Asher :)) We are still collecting donations for children's church, shoes, baby clothes and craft stuff. So, hurry up and get all your stuff to Aubrey, before it's too late! I'm in the middle of booking a hotel for when we arrive in Raymondville near Brownsville TX. We are going to stop there to spend the night (or part of it I should say, Asher says we'll leave around 4 or 5 a.m. to cross the border). Jason is going to meet us there. I will be sending this now to see if I've properly set up this blog. Talk to you all soon.