NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

In October, I attended a cooking class that our church here sponsored.  The purpose of the class was to explore a possible solution to the poor nutrition in many of the tribal settings of Mexico.

A professional cook (I don’t know her name.  We all called her "Maestra," which means teacher) came to my friend’s house (Liliana, the associate pastor’s wife) and taught us how to make every imaginable delicious treat using soy beans.  We learned how to take raw soy beans and process them and cook them.  We made soy milk (a zillion times better than the soy milk you can get in a carton), soy cheese (basically tofu), soy chorizo (chorizo is a Mexican-style sausage), soy patties, soy candy, peanut butter with soy, a soy drink similar to horchata, soy sweet bread, soy flour, and I just don’t remember everything else!

This church is very missions-minded, and the main reason they sponsored this event was for the purpose of helping my parents answer some nutritional needs in the Guarijio tribe where they work as missionaries.  I was thrilled to be able to be a part, and I tucked away as much knowledge as I could recall so that someday I can hopefully extend this blessing to whatever tribe we have the privilege of working with.  And of course, I learned a TON of Spanish with 15 women talking at ninety miles and hour for about 7 hours! 

We had a blast seeing my parents at the beginning of October.  We all went up to El Paso together (they needed to do a supply run, and we wanted some Grandpa and Grandma time). 

While we were there, we got to celebrate my mom’s 50th birthday with her, which was a special treat.  My sister, Karen, came all the way from Tucson to join us for the occasion!  What fun!

Mom spoiled us for a few days with her good cooking and we really enjoyed just relaxing with my parents and letting our minds take a break from Spanish.

This is my language helper, Yoshi.  She and I have become good friends, and I REALLY appreciate her help …and her patience with my mistakes.

Well, it finally happened.  I have been terrified of the day that I would accidentally say something awful by accident.  I feared that I would accidently say something like, "Your grandmother is a cow." when I meant to say something totally innocent, like, "Your house is lovely."

I think I topped my own fears on this one.  A couple days ago in my language session, I was trying to figure out what I should do if I accidentally bumped into someone as I was walking down the street.  It was just a tiny piece of culture I wanted to investigate.  My language helper recorded a great story for me about these two guys named Roberto and Pablo (or something like that).  Roberto was walking down the street and he came around a corner and bumped into Pablo.  He excused himself and helped Pablo get up, and they went on their way.  I listened to this story over and over because I wanted to be able to get all the vocabulary down so that I could retell it in my own words at my next session.

Then came my next session.  Somehow, without realizing it, I told a story about Roberto and Pablo who were touching each other in the street!  My language helper laughed and laughed and I was SOOOOO embarrassed.  The word I should have said:  topa.  The word I said: toca.  On a recording, these two words sound EXTREMELY similar because Spanish has no aspiration (my linguistic-geek friends will know what I mean).  Man, some parts of this language just really leave no room for error!  That was a consonant error.  I did something WAY worse the other day when I messed up a vowel in a Spanish word.  I can’t even tell you about that one.  I would turn every imaginable color of red just typing what I said!  But please don’t wash my mouth out with soap.  I didn’t mean to say such awful things!

Mexicans know how to celebrate.  In September, we had an awesome opportunity to experience this first-hand. 

Mexican Independence Day is super-duper important in Mexico, but especially here in Chihuahua, where they have the biggest grito in the whole nation. 

The festivities begin somewhere around 7:00 in the evening when parties break out all over the city.  We went to a party at the church we attend here in Chihuahua.  At this party, Wesley got his face painted, the men had to get on stage and take turns competing for who has the best Mexican "grito" (yell) …which was a hilarious event for Aaron to participate in, we got to hear some of the history of Mexico recounted, we tasted a delicious Mexican soup and enjoyed watching all the kids sing songs.  It was way-too-funny to watch our two boys lip-sink patriotic songs in another language, but at the end of the songs when the lady held the microphone up to Wesley’s mouth, he didn’t hesitate.  As if scripted, he announced, "Viva, Mexico!"

That party went on until somewhere around 9:30 or 10:00, but the night was young.  After that, I got the chance to go with some friends to the Chihuahua "grito."  This was an incredible experience.  Around 80,000 people packed into the city square.  People were literally standing so close that for much of the time I could have only moved LITERALLY three inches forward or backward, and ZERO inches from side to side.  When we arrived (somewhere around 10:30, I think) a lady with a positively amazing voice was singing many patriotic songs for Mexico and for Chihuahua.  Following her performance, the governor stood on the balcony of his palace (which is there in the city square) and gave a brief speech, followed by the "grito."  "Grito" simply means yell, but there is a lot of tradition packed into this thing.  The short version is this:  the governor shouts cheers to the people, which they enthusiastically shout back.  "Viva Mexico!  Viva Chihuahua!  Viva!" etc.  This description is just not doing anything justice.  It was incredible.  The best part came next.  Think you have seen some cool fireworks on 4th of July or at Disneyland?  I would beg to differ!  I have never seen anything like this in my life!  We watched about 20 or 30 minutes of fireworks being shot off of rooftops right over our heads.  These fireworks were unbelievable and I have no idea how many millions of dollars were spent on them.  It was so incredible that I finally just started laughing, because I really couldn’t believe it was real.  I could not have imagined a firework show this amazing, and I have a very good imagination!

Following the fireworks, we were entertained by another amazing musician.  He sang and sang and sang and…. I don’t know how his voice held up, but the people loved him.  I don’t know when the party ended, because we finally couldn’t take it anymore and we went home at, I think, around 2:00am.  I was exhausted, but what an incredible experience!  Aaron couldn’t go, but he definitely needs to be there next year.  Come visit us next September and we’ll take you along!

Honey is a Belgian Malinois (we don’t know if she is a mix with something else, too) that we got from Texas in September.  She was about four months old when we got her.

We got Honey because we really needed a guard dog.  Three of the New Tribes Missionaries here in Mexico have had their houses robbed recently, and we wonder if NTM is being targeted.  It really helps to have a dog.  And the absolute worse time of year for robberies, kidnappings and vehicle thefts is upon us.  Fall and winter are horrible for these types of crimes so it is important for us to walk in wisdom and do what we can to try to prevent these things.  Beyond that, we trust the all-powerful God, and we ask you to pray for our safety! 

Back to Honey …She is an excellent guard dog!  But she is also a fun friend for two little boys.  She is SOOO sweet, and has tons of energy.  She is all play.  We are impressed with how gentle she is with our kiddos.

We were told that a person has to make thousands and thousands of mistakes in order to learn a language, so Aaron and I are wasting no time!  We make all kinds of crazy mistakes!  We also have several small victories that make us feel like we are getting somewhere.

Aaron recently had to take a trip out of town.  He, a beginner language learner, went to the bus station and inquired about bus tickets.  He successfully (if not accurately) explained what day he was leaving, found out when the right bus was going where he wanted to go, and found out how much it would cost.  Those of you who have never learned a second language are waiting for my point.  Those of you who have learned a second language know that I have already made my point.  Point (for those who haven’t attempted a second language):  Aaron is doing really well.  It takes major guts to go out and do ordinary things when you have to use a language that you are only beginning to learn!  Yay Aaron!

Today, I got a phone call from a telemarketer who only spoke Spanish.  That was my first only-Spanish phone call.  I missed a LOT of what he said, but I was so excited to be able to comprehend the little that I could.  I know that most of you hate telemarketing calls, and that you may find talking to a telemarketer to be a waste of time, but it was great fun for me.  It was a real challenge to muster enough vocabulary to tell him that we already have a long distance calling plan, and that I don’t want any more services added to my phone.  I did it!  I am sure his ears hurt afterwards from my bad Spanish, but I did it!

I also got some visitors today.  I struggled to understand their big words and complicated grammar.  They sounded so smart!  When I wanted to give up on the conversation because it was too hard, they pressed me with further complicated questions and I again struggled to understand their advanced vocabulary.  Oh, did I mention that they were only about 7 years old?  Yeah.  Humiliating.

We have been learning our numbers lately, so the other day Aaron tried to use his numbers at a gas station.  He tried to say that he wanted 500 pesos worth of gas.  He said he wanted, "quesientos."  I don’t think that’s really a word, but "queso" is cheese and "-cientos" is a word part that signifies "hundred," so I decided "quesientos" means "cheese-hundred."   

With all our victories and lack thereof, we sure are having fun.  We are learning tons.  Thanks for praying!  Now you know how much we need it.

  For our first few class days, we took trips to all sorts of places in order to gain a better picture of the culture of Mexico.  We made a delicious Mexican meal with one of our language teachers today, and yesterday we took the public bus system down to a huge city park where we ordered fresh squeezed orange juice from a little juice stand (you could also order flavors like beet-carrot juice …"Ahorita no, gracias").  

  Last Friday we drove downtown to an open-air produce market, where we got some awesome chiles, which I used for making chile rellenos with friends.  Yum! 

    Last Thursday we drove up a mountain to get a great view of this huge city.  Officially, we have been told that Chihuahua has about 750,000 people, but we are thinking that maybe the city limits must be much smaller than the Chihuahua we drive around.  We think the population of the greater city is probably over a million people, and maybe pushing two million.  It was fun to get up on a mountain where we could see a lot of the city (though still not all of it).  We saw the statue at the top that supposedly watches over the city.  Tomorrow we will go as a class to a nice restaurant for a meal, and that will be our last "immersion excursion."

  At each excursion we take lots of pictures and try to make as many cultural observations as possible.  There is so much to learn!  When we are finished with our "immersion excursions," we will use those photos to gather and practice language information with our language helpers in the afternoons.  

  What do our kids do during excursions that aren’t kid-friendly, or when we are in class?  We are so grateful to God for Liliana, a sweet friend from our church here in Mexico.  She knows a little English and has a four year old boy named Aram (Wesley’s favorite friend down here).  The boys have been having so much fun with their babysitter!  They go there for three hours a day, four days a week, and they love it.  I told Liliana to use a lot of Spanish with them, except when they are sad, confused or in trouble.  We are amazed at how much Spanish they are learning!    

Someone recently commited debit card fraud against us in a part of Mexico that we have never even visited (hey… maybe that’s where our truck is).  Please pray for us as we sort through the details of resolving this.  We had taken measures to try to prevent this, and now that it has happened anyway, we have taken further measures to try to prevent a repeat.

I cannot tell you more than that right now, but you know how to pray.  Thank you.  We are so glad that you are on our team.

Well, friends, we were hoping this wouldn’t happen, but it has.  We are trusting the Lord to give us wisdom to get through it. 

As you know, our truck and our legal information was stolen last month.  Now our identity has been, too.  Someone has figured out how to use our bank account even though we cancelled the card.  They also then managed to freeze our cards so that we cannot use them to withdraw money from that account.  This happened in a part of Mexico that we have never even been to.  Hey… maybe that’s where our truck is!

I cannot tell you much more than that at the present time, but you know how to pray.

Our Spanish study officially begins this Wednesday.  Please pray that God would open our minds to this language.  Pray that He would give us the skill and tenacity to learn Spanish quickly so that we can get out to a tribe.  Pray that we will have humble hearts and laugh easily at our mistakes!