Rachel Chapman a servant of the Living God
Yes! We have “free power”! The electric lines don’t reach out as far as we live into the mountains. So, we live off the grid!
Some friends helped us wire the house
and put up our panels.
And, now we can enjoy light at night, process language on our computers, and watch an occasional movie at night!
It’s not done, but it’s live-able!
We have a roof, solid walls, and even a kitchen sink!
We’re lacking a bathroom and running water. But, it will come eventually! Right now, this is our “facility.”
And, I have my own room.
I’ve got a little table rigged up like a desk for the moment. Since I took the picture, we were able to move in my bed. All of us are sleeping on regular beds now instead of cots!
I think one key component of this time while we are waiting for the rains to stop so we can travel into the village is team relationship & bonding. We’re just now all living in the same place for the first time. It is a time of learning about each other and building of relationships as a team. I knew each one of my teammates before moving here to Durango, but at different levels of relationship. Now, living close and working together – I am moving into more profound relationships with my team. I thank God for the co-workers that He has provided.
Our proposed floorplan
In addition to bonding with my team and besides the normal things of living – cooking, cleaning, etc., there are a few things that I have been doing in preparation for the future. Katie & I will be building our house in the village soon, so I have been working on the plans. I got my missionary technology textbook from training off the shelf, dusted it off, and began to read. So, now I remember that Watts = Volts x Amps, and am figuring out what our daily consumption of electricity might look like so we can know how many solar panels we will need. There is so much to think about!
One of my coworkers recently gave me a a stack of resources – articles and research done by those who study culture, language analysis done by co-workers, and culture that has been cataloged by someone who has gone before us – available to us concerning the language and culture of the Nahuatl people.
I have started working through one of these books, but you can see that there are many more! I’m in the process of learning what others before me have found out to build off of their foundation. I’m hoping to file what I learn from these in a program so the rest of my team can reference the material with a few clicks of the mouse.
So, that is what I have been up to these days!
Yes, I have electricity, and No, I’m not living in a tent. I am enjoying all the luxuries of modern inventions. I am living in a big city with my teammates, the Elkins. I have my own bedroom…
My bedroom
…and enjoy having a phone, internet, electricity, washing machine, hot water… It’s great! There’s little vegetable/fruit store a few blocks away and a tortilleria a few blocks the other way. A house very close sells freshly made tamales and there are three convenience stores very close. About a half mile away is a major grocery store like any in the US. So, I am very blessed where I am right now.
However, I do have a tent, and I will most likely live in it when we make a trip to the mountains in October. 
Downtown Cathedral
I, together with my team, moved farther into Mexico because we are planning to move into the mountains to Las Moras to work with the people there. Chihuahua, where I was living before, is a 3 day drive to Las Moras. So, logistically, now we are much closer. We’re in a large enough town that we can get whatever we need here. There’s even a Home Depot, Walmart, and Sam’s Club!
And, our teammates, the Elkins, are settled here, know the city, and have many contacts in the area.
So, that is why we chose to relocate as we begin to build our houses and move into the mountains.
