Hello,
I am sorry that it has been so long since the last post. We’ve been stuck in a whirlwind the last few weeks. I have only just started to catch my breath.
Autumnal walk through orchards
John and I went home for a wedding of a dear friend at the end of September. The wedding was absolutely wonderful- a fall picnic in a persimmon orchard. We were able to spend time with close friends and listen to a folk/bluegrass band through the reception. Just perfect.
Me and the lovely bride
Two dear friends listening to the music
The rest of our time was parceled out between friends and family. We had something going morning, noon and night. (and even later night!) I was really nice to be in a comfortable and familiar place for a little while. We got to spend time with our niece and three year old nephews (one of whom has been asking after “Unca John” since we left three months ago). I am really happy that so many of our friends and family made extra time for us, staying up late to hang out with us despite having jobs and family to take care of in the morning. John and I were really encouraged by the time we spent with people who are important to us.
John, with his nephew, Jayden
We ended up extending our trip a little to move out of our cottage. Our landlords and friends had generously to let us leave our house intact duringour three month stay in Mexico. They have been using it as a guest house for some family who had come to visit. Since John and I have decided to stay longer then we were planning, we packed up our things and moved them into a corner of John’s parent’s garage. We packed and moved in the space of four days while still spending time with friends and family in the evenings. We were pretty exhausted by then. We are so grateful for Ted and Mary who offered to do all the packing and moving for us, and who ended up helping us a lot with the move. My mom and Mary are also going to clean the place and return the key. It is hard to describe how much our families have helped us in our adult lives. I am so very grateful for their love and support. It would be impossible for us to have the life experiences we have had without them.
My sister, brother, and me
We also sold our car to my parents and are looking for a little truck or 4-runner that would be more appropriate for the terrain down here.
It is no surprise with the change in diet, time, schedule, and environment that we were both fighting colds while we were home, and John Mark is still pretty sick. He is suspecting an upper respiratory infection and has started antibiotics. He has been sleeping and resting a lot to try and get well. There wasn’t time for us to rest when we were visiting home, so we are both a little relieved to be back into our own place and into a routine.
John and I decided while were home that we want to make a longer commitment to La Fuente and go to language school to help us learn Spanish. We have been making some strides with the language, but our time is focused more on serving, which limits the time we can spend on language study. It would help us so much to spend some time where we are only working on the language. We could do so much more if we knew Spanish. The pastors have started speaking to us primarily in Spanish since we returned which will help immensely. The school we are looking at attending is in Guadalajara. It is specifically for missionaries. We would probably spend 3-6 months there depending on how long it takes to become proficient in conversational Spanish. John and I feel like there is still a lot for us to learn and do here in Mexico. We are looking forward to the months and years ahead. We had a safe and uneventful flight despite the concern about Hurricane Jove. They were predicting extreme whether with over 100 mile/hour gusts. Hurricane Mckenna hit here a few years ago, and it was pretty intense. It rained so hard that cars were swept down the street and into the ocean. I have heard that the Mexicans were buying extra water and candles this time, expecting the storm to be pretty bad. The kids even had time off of school. Hurricane Jova was supposed to make landfall before we landed in Puerto Vallarta on Tuesday, but it never hit here. The south part of the bay had some severe wind and rain, but we just had a steady rain for most of the day yesterday. It was almost eerie how still the palm trees were for most of the afternoon.
Together!
Thank you to everyone who came to our get together on October 2nd. We loved seeing all of you and sharing some pictures and stories with you. We are so grateful to have your prayers and financial support. Without them, it would be impossible to follow the direction that we strongly feel that God is leading us. Despite our blindness, we are confident that God will continue to make his plan clear to us just in the nick of time – as has been the case with us this past year.
At that meeting, we asked you to pray for our friend, Dago. There was an accident the day we flew home. The head of construction who was a close friend of John’s fell 20 feet onto concrete and did not recover. We are very sad to lose a friend, but we know that he is with Jesus. Thank you for all of your prayers. Before he passed, his wife had a dream of him saying goodbye to her and leaving. She was deeply comforted by that dream and has been doing well considering the circumstances. Please continue to pray for her and the rest of his family.
We are very grateful for your continued prayers for us and the ministry here. John would appreciate prayer concerning the infection he is fighting. He wants to get back to work, but is not feeling well. Please pray for safety for the construction team and for our continue progress in the language.
Looking Forward,
Moorea
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