|
|
 |
Thirsty in France
My first visit to a foreign country was an exchange visit with my pen friend in Northern France, when I was in school. I lived in England, and so we went as a group by train to Dover to catch the cross-channel ferry. Then we had to catch a train and finally I took a bus to arrive in the town of Valenciennes, where I was met by my pen friend and her family. It was a long, tiring journey full of excitement for a young 16 year old. I had studied French for 5 years at school, but all of my teachers had been women. I was rather shy, and when we arrived at the home where I was to stay for 3 weeks, although I was desperately thirsty, I didn't like to ask for a drink. I met the family and found that I couldn't understand a single word my friend's father said! Finally I couldn't stand it any more and asked if I could have a drink. Her father quickly got up and reached for a glass, and poured a clear liquid into it, adding water, which made it cloudy. He then offered it to me smilingly. I had no idea what it was, but thought it must be a type of cordial or "squash" like we had in England that was a concentrated fruit drink. I thirstily drank down the whole glassful - only to discover that it was strong and alcoholic! It was apparently anise, which is a type of liqueur! Needless to say it was NOT what I expected, and it gave the family a good laugh to start off my visit!
|
Parking space in Panuco
Our very first trip into the heart of Mexico, during the summer of 1993, was particularly stressful for many reasons! It had rained over 12" during the 24 hours before we left, and at one time our hometown was cut off completely due to burst dams and flooded roads! But we managed to leave out on time, with our faithful old van pulling our newly acquired (but far from new!) 28ft travel trailer. Roads were flooded the whole way down to the Mexican border, and so it took us even longer than expected. Our final destination was supposed to be about 10 hours south of the border, but although we left early in the morning to cross the border, we still had a couple of hours to go when it began to get dark. We had always been told NEVER to drive in Mexico at night, and so we agreed we would have to stop the night in the small town of Panuco.
We had never been there before and our Spanish was limited to a small pocket dictionary and sign language. The streets were terribly narrow and of course it was Friday night and so they were also crowded with people meeting up with friends. We drove around and around the plaza but there was no parking space suitable for both our van and our trailer. We were exhausted and a little scared, so Gerald decided to continue to drive around the block, while I ran out to find a room in a suitable hotel.
I managed to ask the man behind the hotel desk if he had a room available, and he did. Then I asked if they had a parking lot - they did. THEN I had to ask if there was room in it for our van and travel trailer! Of course the word "trailer" wasn't in the dictionary, so I used my hands to explain that we had a "carro" and a "uuuuhh" behind. He finally said no! He said to park it in the street - but of course there was no space available. I ran out and told Gerald and then had an idea. As he drove on again to circle the block several times, I ran into the police station. After all, how could the police give us a parking ticket if they told us where to park?
|
|
I asked if anyone could speak English - they said that the chief of police did, and sent me to the "inner chamber". I was so desperate and tired, I didn't think to be scared! When I was ushered in to see the chief, I asked him if he could speak English, but he answered "En Mexico City sí, aquí (Here) NO!" I think he was quite affronted that I didn't speak Spanish! So again I went through my story with hand gestures explaining that we couldn't find anywhere to park the van and trailer. He shook his head and said loudly "En la calle" (in the street). I was so exasperated, I dragged him by the hand outside, pointed to Gerald circling the block yet again and said "¿Dónde en la calle????" (Where in the street?)
Finally he said something to another officer and told me to go - they would find us a place! I got back in the van and explained it to Gerald as we drove round again, although we didn't have any faith that on the next time around any of the parked cars would have moved! But as we approached the plaza a few minutes later, there was a policeman signaling us to park on the side of the plaza - and the whole side had been cleared of cars!!! I don't know if the police really can move that quickly in Mexico, or if God just did a miracle, but we were certainly thankful that we could finally stop, have a meal and a good night's sleep! Back to top
|
Chicken soup in Platón
While we were living in Platón Sánchez, a small town in Veracruz, Gerald got really sick one day. It was terribly hot and humid, yet he had severe chills and a high fever that lasted for several days. We had no money and couldn't consider going to a doctor, so just prayed and did what we could. Finally one evening at about 8.30pm he weakly asked me if I could get him some chicken noodle soup, like his mother used to give him when he was sick as a boy.
I immediately ran out to visit the local store before it closed at 9pm. It was the ground floor of a small house and was a typical general store, selling anything that one would want (as a Mexican that is!). I knew they sold cans of Campbell's soup, so hoped to find some there. Sure enough they had three varieties - corn soup, chile soup and pumpkin flower soup (until then I had no idea Campbell's made those varieties!) NO chicken noodle! I quickly ran through the dark empty streets to the only other two grocery stores in town, but neither had anything different.
I got back to my dear husband and sadly told him that there was NO chicken noodle soup in Platón! I promised to get up early in the morning and make some homemade soup instead. That entailed going to the corner of the plaza before 9am, where women set up small tables with a machete and 3 or 4 chickens. I could then buy a portion of chicken, come home and cook it, and make some chicken soup for him! Fortunately he found out that he wasn't quite so desperately ill, and he WAS able to wait until the next day!
|
Day of the Child
Towards the end of our first year living in Veracruz, we received a visit from a group from our home church in Texas. About 17 of them came, and hardly anyone other than the pastor had ever been outside the USA before. The town we were living in was small and very rarely saw "gringos" and so our house had already become known as where the gringos lived. We had planned a lot of activities for the week when the group was there, including a special Wednesday evening meeting. We normally had a bible study that night, but decided to change it somewhat to allow more mingling of the Americans with our local Hispanic friends. Our small house had a large garden and some unfinished buildings in it, so we decided (since it was April and already very hot) to divide into four groups - men, women, teens and children and have a teaching focused specifically for each group. Then afterwards, we planned a special meal for everyone to share together - goat cooked in the local tradition in a pit in the ground covered in banana leaves.
Our local friends were excited to meet our American friends and offered to cook a special tamale supper on the night the Americans were due to arrive. The day was busily spent preparing and cooking well over 100 tamales. However to our disappointment, 3 tires blew out on the church van on the drive down and so they were delayed so long, they didn't arrive until almost midnight. They were totally exhausted and only wanted to get to the hotel and go to bed. We had to explain to our Mexican friends, who fortunately understood. During the next couple of days, more of the Americans suffered from "Montezuma's revenge" (upset stomach and diarrhea) but we went ahead and planned the meal for Wednesday as we had invited several pastors and church leaders from surrounding communities. We had planned a leaders meeting at 5pm, followed at 6pm by the meeting when we would divide into groups (including having bible games and a piñata as something special for the children), finishing with the meal about 7pm.
|
|
We noticed during the afternoon that lots of women and children seemed to be hanging around the gate. At about 4pm there was even a line waiting! We asked what they wanted, and they said they had come for the party! Yet we had never seen these people before! We told them to come back at 6pm - after all we were always praying that God would increase our bible study group! But by 5pm there was a real crowd waiting at the gate when the pastors and leaders arrived. It was only then that we learned that it just happened to be the "Day of the Child" that day! We had no idea what that meant, but quickly were told that on that day each year, parents all over Mexico take their children around the town to receive candy and toys from houses and stores. Many big businesses and ministries put on special parties for children - and of course the word had got around that the gringos were having a big party for all the local children!!
We didn't know what to do but finally explained that we were actually having bible studies also and so if they wanted to come in they could, but they had to attend the bible study groups. (We decided we might as well use the occasion to reach a few more lost people!). So we proceeded with the bible study, with the visiting Americans, our invited friends and a LOT of extra people. It was almost chaos!!! Shirley translated for a women's minister in the house, with 35 women, many with nursing babies; about 35 men met in one building outside, about 30 youth met in one part of the garden and over 100 children played the games and had the piñata in another part of the garden! Of course the kitchen was packed with our local Mexican friends preparing the meal, which we had planned for 100 people.
|
|
Somehow we were coping alright until close to 7pm when it started to get dark - and suddenly the electricity went off in the town! Inside the house it was not only dark but, with so many people and food cooking, it quickly became unbearably hot, with no fans working! We rushed around and finally came up with just 2 or 3 flashlights, as it grew pitch dark. We ended the meetings and then had to find a way to make all the extra 100 uninvited guests leave, so we could start to feed our Mexican and American friends. It was very difficult to distinguish who was who in the dark, but we finally got the strangers out and locked the gate.
As we started to try to serve the food, our pastor came up and announced that the Americans were very sorry but they just couldn't take any more - they were sick, hot, and exhausted, and had to return to the hotel! We couldn't believe it and BEGGED them to stay, but they were insistent and all but one left! Although we could understand how they felt, we were so ashamed that they didn't realize how ungrateful it was to not stay and try at least a little of the food that our Mexican friends had spent all day cooking AGAIN!!
That experience showed us that as missionaries living "in the field" we were literally in the middle of two cultures - we suffered deeply with BOTH sides! It was a very difficult situation and it made us realize the great importance of proper preparation for any group that plans a mission trip. Thankfully our Mexican friends were true believers and could see how devastated we were that their work had not been appreciated, so they did not have bad feelings.
When we finally got back the photos that we had taken during the event, we were amazed to see that we had forgotten to bring in our washing before the meeting. It was all still hanging on the line while 200 people (100 of them poor strangers!) milled around in the dark! It was truly a miracle none of it got stolen!! Back to top
|
Rosa's aunt
When we were living in Veracruz, we had a suburban and since vehicles were scarce, we were often asked to help out Christian friends or give rides. One day it had been raining for a long time and there was thick, gooey mud everywhere. Our friend, Rosa, came to the door and asked if we could help out by going to pick up her aunt and taking her to the clinic for a vitamin shot. She lived just outside the town and could barely walk. I agreed, and so we drove down the muddy trail, and across the stream to her aunt's little house. I went in with Rosa and saw the little two roomed shack with almost nothing in it. Her aunt had some condition that caused terrible swelling, and her face was so swollen that her eyes were almost shut, and her legs were swollen so she could barely walk.
As the old lady got her things together, I noticed a fold-up bed in one corner. I remarked to Rosa that at least she had a comfortable bed. But Rosa informed me that although she had given that to her aunt some years before, her aunt never used it - saying it was too soft and she couldn't sleep! Rosa showed me the bed her aunt preferred - it was about 3 feet off the ground and consisted of only 4 large bamboo poles on a stand! I could hardly believe that the old lady could even get up onto it, let alone sleep on it!
We took her to the clinic and on the way back, I asked Rosa if we could stop in at the general store and maybe pick up some food for her aunt (since I saw nothing to eat in the house). She agreed and so I gave her some money. She spoke with the old lady and then went in and bought a few items of food. When she came out she said her aunt wanted us to make one more stop. She directed us down a road that was thick mud as it began to pour with rain again. I was very worried that the vehicle would get stuck, but the old lady insisted we'd be OK! Finally we pulled up in front of a shack with a lot of men standing outside. It turned out that it was where they made the local "white lightning" liquor! The old lady insisted she needed it to rub on her sore legs, and not to drink, but it put us into a quandary! Rosa was a pastor and we were almost the only white people in the town, and known to be missionaries - it was putting our reputation on the line! Rosa and I looked at each other, trying to decide what to do! In the end, we decided to "believe the best" of the old lady, and Rosa ran in to get a bottle! I don't know if it harmed our reputation or not; or exactly how the old lady used the liquor, but she died just a short time after, so maybe her pain was eased one way or another!
|
Medical mission
When we were living in rural Veracruz, Mexico, we knew a Nahuatl (Aztec) Indian named Juan. He was married and had several children, and lived on the edge of a small village called Tlalpani. He and his family, along with another neighboring couple, were the only Christians in the village. The rest of the people were strongly Catholic (although their beliefs were also mixed with a great deal of superstition and witchcraft). We witnessed a good example of their beliefs when some Mexican doctors from the capital, who had previously held a free clinic to treat the sick in Tlalpani, offered to hold another clinic there, but were turned down by the elders of the village. The elders stated firmly that they would rather watch their sick children and elderly die, than have them hear about Jesus and be led away from their traditional beliefs!
As we got to know more about Juan, we learned how he and his family suffered persecution daily. They were basically shunned by the village, yet remained committed to their Christian faith. The two families had built a tiny church (literally a bamboo hut with no seats) and worshipped there weekly. We went to visit them, and after a slow drive down a terrible road, we had to leave the truck where the “road” ended at the entrance to the village and then walk about 15 minutes to Juan’s house on the far edge of the village. They were incredibly poor, and we learned that the villagers would not allow them to draw water from the village well, and so they had to go by night through the woods and over the hill to get water from a stream about 30 minutes away! Juan’s teenage son was prone to fall down in a seizure; his wife was very anemic and suffering from a female ailment causing much bleeding; and the only work that Juan could get was by walking 2 hours into the nearest small town and maybe cut grass all day with his machete for the grand sum of about $3!
|
|
Our hearts went out to them (as happened often as we learned of more and more people in similar situations) and we desperately wanted to help. We, ourselves, were living with our two teenage children in a tiny house, with very minimal support (about $400 per month!) and we were literally trusting in the Lord each day to provide for our own needs. We managed to find out how Juan and his family could get an I.D. card from the government to be able to go and get help from a hospital in a nearby town, and even made arrangements for them to get there. We offered to pay Juan to work for a week clearing up our big yard, and about the same time we started a free “mini Bible school” for pastors and leaders each week on market day, so they could learn more about the Bible, how to study and prepare teachings and so on.
The result? Sadly, Juan only showed up for work one day - we didn’t see him for over a week, then he came with several sad excuses and said that his family were not going to get the I.D. cards. As we talked, we realized that they were afraid to be “registered” with the government, and would not listen to anything we had to say; but he did agree to come to the Bible school the next week. Of course he never did.
This sad incident (one of many we were to experience) taught us the value of recognizing that, just as Jesus himself said, “The poor will be with us always”. We are naturally moved, especially as Christians, to want to help when we see so much need, yet we will NEVER be able to meet all the needs. Certainly we must do what we can, yet we should also realize that to REALLY help, the SYSTEM must be changed – and that takes a lot of time, manpower, education and resources. Also, it is a LOT harder when dealing with another culture! Back to top
|
Brazil experience
While Shirley was in Argentina, she chatted about different cross-cultural experiences with some ministers from a local church where she preached. They were eating a late-night meal after the service and wine was offered in the restaurant. The Argentinians explained that in their country, most Christians did not see anything wrong with drinking a glass of wine or beer occasionally. (This is viewed differently in many countries around the world.) However, smoking is viewed as unacceptable by most Christians there. One of the ministers shared how she went with a group from her church on a mission trip to neighboring Brazil. They were to preach in a church but arrived early, so sat on the steps of the church. The sun was very hot as they waited and so one of the group went to the little store opposite and came back with a bottle of beer for each of them, which they drank thirstily. Just as they were finishing, around the corner came the pastor of the church, smoking a big cigar! He looked at them drinking beer, and they looked at him smoking a cigar - and everyone wondered if they should preach there after all! But it all turned out well as they realized the importance of being united in Christ, even if we disagree about other issues!
|
Moving house in Mexico
When we moved from tropical Veracruz, to China, Nuevo León (which was in the desert), we had to move all our furniture and belongings on our 18ft flatbed trailer. It was a good 8hrs journey by car, along roads which were, at the time, no more than just 2-lane highways at best. We had spent some months in Texas and so left our two children there, while we went to China to prepare the house we were renting, as it had not been lived in for three years. Since it was all cement and tile inside, we hosed it all down and mopped the floors. The next day we drove to Veracruz and spent two nights in a hotel so we had a day to pack and load everything. We had absolutely no doubts that we had heard from God regarding the move - which was good, because that move was to be quite an experience!
We left early in the morning and made our way to Tampico - a busy city on the Gulf of Mexico. Our trailer was literally packed high with all our possessions tied onto it for all the world to see. As we drove north up the busy two-lane highway, we had just finished eating a sandwich and happened to remark how we must "stick out like a sore thumb" as we had never seen anyone move with things on a trailer like that in Mexico! Then Gerald (who was driving) suddenly noticed the little old car behind us. We were doing a steady 55 mph but it started to pass us. At the same instant Gerald realized there was a piece of wood in the road with nails sticking up, which he luckily managed to miss. We caught sight of a pick-up truck parked off the road, and then suddenly the little car swerved right in front of us and slammed on his brakes!!!
We both yelled "Jesus" as Gerald hit the brakes, but it was like slow-motion as we watched horrified as we bore down closer and closer on the little car. It was impossible for us to stop so quickly with the loaded trailer. There was no way to pass or pull to the side on the narrow road. It seemed inevitable - the driver MUST have seen us! Why was he stopping with us right behind? Suddenly, just as we were going to hit the car, it suddenly jumped forward about 6 ft and stopped again. It was just enough for us to stop with a fraction of an inch of space left! Believe what you will, but we KNOW an angel moved the car forward!
Gerald looked in the rearview mirror and said "I feel something is wrong here - we'd better go." Thankfully there was a gap in the traffic approaching us and we were able to reverse and pull past the car. As we did, I looked at the driver's face - I expected him to look scared, but he had a menacing look on his face. It was only then that we realized it was a trap. If we had hit him (or the board with the nail), and had an accident on that lonely stretch of road, I'm sure we'd have had our belongings stolen if nothing worse! It shook us up, but we thanked God and went on.
|
|
The return journey was slower due to the load, and we ended up traveling along the last 100 mile stretch of desert road in the dark. There literally are no houses for many miles and nothing but open desert. Suddenly we realized we had trouble - our lights started to dim and we started to slow down. We stopped and Gerald (who was a mechanic for years) looked under the hood. He realized what it was, a bearing going out, but there was nothing we could do to fix it! It was an IMPOSSIBLE situation! If we broke down and Gerald went to get help (which there wasn't any), I was vulnerable with the load. If I went for help, we were both vulnerable! If we both went for help, we could lose our belongings, and if we stayed there who knows what would happen! We HAD to get back to China! We just prayed and believed that God was not going to let us down.
It took ages, but we finally arrived at the new house at 11pm - totally exhausted and thanking God! But since we didn't know any of the neighbors, we couldn't risk leaving the trailer loaded with all our things, so had to unload it into the house. We finally collapsed onto a mattress on the floor of one of the bedrooms, at about 1am. Our pastor was arriving by bus in the morning to see the house and then travel back in our vehicle with us to Texas - but how could we if it was broken down? Too many problems to think of! We just slept.
|
|
We got up early in the morning and as I was getting ready, I sat on the mattress and reached out my hand to get my makeup; as I did, I almost picked up something else instead - but it scurried off into a pile of clothes! I screamed and Gerald came running. We gingerly picked through the clothes and finally discovered a huge, menacing centipede! Gerald finally killed it and I took it to the little store across the street to find out more about it. It turned out to be a particularly lethal centipede, usually seen only out in the desert (apparently it had been vacationing in our house!). The neighbor said that when it bites, it also digs in all its many claws and tail, and injects venom that kills an adult in 6 hrs! And we had slept right next to it! We praised God once again!
Gerald decided we should try to buy a bearing for the truck, so we walked around trying to find a parts store. The only problem was that we were out of money and only had 28 pesos left (less than $3)! We needed another miracle! We found a little place just around the corner and went in to where there were just a lot of shelves and drawers. Gerald showed the owner the bearing; the man nodded, reached into a drawer and pulled out one just like it! The price 25 pesos!! So Gerald had the truck fixed in time to meet the pastor and we headed back to Texas! We still had no doubt we were supposed to live there, although we knew the devil was not at all happy about it! Back to top
|
Bank photo in Kenya
While on my recent trip to rural Kenya, I tried to take photos of some of the typical buildings to show how different many of them are. We were on our way back from a trip out of town one day, and we were very short of time - we had high-centered on a rough road and torn up the exhaust system. Unfortunately the car wasn't even ours, it belonged to a kind pastor who had loaned it to us for the trip! I was scheduled to teach part of a children's ministry seminar, and then speak to a group of intercessors afterwards. We had barely an hour to get the exhaust welded back and return the car, walk back to the house, change and pick up our things and then walk about 2 miles to the church! On top of everything dark black clouds rolled in and it was obviously going to pour with rain!
We swung onto the edge of the road where apparently the welder had his "spot" (you couldn't call it his shop, because he had just literally set up his acetylene tank and welding gear on the side of the road!). One of the passengers with us pointed out the bank as we passed it. I was fascinated as it had no sign or name, and was surrounded by vertical sheets of tin roofing!! No-one would possibly know it was a bank! I snapped a quick photo of it without thinking, and almost immediately a man appeared at the car window extremely upset. He was a police officer and apparently it is against the law to photograph a bank! He demanded my camera and threatened to arrest me! Thankfully Mike managed to plead my case and I was allowed to go free and even had my camera returned, although all 24 photos on the roll of film were destroyed! Fortunately while we were dealing with all this, the welder managed to do a quick patch up job, and we drove through the pouring rain to the house, where I grabbed my stuff before we were dropped off at the church. Needless to say, I had to take a few moments to pray and calm down before I was able to start teaching!! Back to top
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
