John Mark & Moorea

Our street in a rain storm. Note that the road has become a river

Hello,

We have been here for almost a week now, and we both like it a lot. This part of Mexico is really beautiful, even if it is the worst time of the year to be here, as the locals keep telling us. It is humid and rainy every day, but it has not been too hot, though John Mark might disagree with me. From our rooftop, we can see the mountains to the north and ocean to the west. The church is literally three houses down from where we are living. It's a great location. 

We have been attending services at the church most mornings and evenings, and helping out with cleaning or administrative stuff. Many people here speak some English and some speak great English, so most of the time, we do not have too much trouble communicating. However, I do feel a blank look creep on to my face every once and a while. There is still a lot to learn. I have been studying Spanish for an hour or two every day when we have free time. I'm hoping I'll be able to pick up enough to understand the basics and communicate before we leave. 

Saturday morning, John Mark (or Juan Marcos :) and I went with Pastor Keith’s 13 year old son who speaks good English to San Ignacio to help clean up the place that they rented for a mission. La Fuenta Riviera, the church we are working with here, began three years ago under a tree. Since then, they have started two churches and five missions in the surrounding communities. And they are growing. They expect to start another church in Vallarta very soon. The missions are places for bible studies, kids' ministries, and meal handouts. The churches are bilingual since there are so many Americans and Canadians who live here part or full time.

Saturday was the first clean up day on the premises of the mission in San ignacio. I swept the top floor while the others picked up trash and swept downstairs. It looked like no one had lived there in a very long time. It was a mess. John installed some light sockets, plugins, and ran wire to the shed/bathroom. We were going to mop too, but apparently the water was out to the entire town! The house has no running water except for a spigot outside and the top floor still does not have any electricity. There is a team of Canadians coming July 14 to work on the building. John Mark will be spending a lot of time with them while they are here. 

It seems that this mission is going to be where John and I spend our time on Tuesday nights and Saturday mornings. I believe that we will be co teaching the 3-5 year old kids' class. That is a pretty powerful motivator to learn Spanish! fortunately, two of the little boys speak English, so we won't be completely lost. 

Thank you for all of your prayers. We are adjusting to the humidity and the time change well. Please pray that we pick up the language miraculously quickly. Communication is the most difficult barrier we have.


Peace Be with You,

Moorea