Working the soil

It has been a long time since I posted our blog on our work in Oaxaca. We have had a rough time with the Internet at the base. Now that we are home and we have Internet I can get caught up.

James River Assembly

In January, James Olson, a long time Roca Blanca associate brought us a construction, medical and dental team from Springfield MO. Our plan was for 3 days of medical/dental clinics and putting a concrete floor and tile roof on the church in El Mosco. If you look above the group smiling for the picture, you can see the expert Mexican abañiles working on the roof.

It is a long drive from Roca Blanca to El Mosco, only 85 miles, but we measure travel times in hours. It takes 5 hours depending on how many delays for construction or vehicle breakdowns. The sights have become very familiar as we pass through each little village, pass corn fields, herds of cattle and groups of people carrying firewood on their heads or burro. We travel over rutted roads and through several stream and a recently completed 10 km section of pavement. We climb up into the mountains, they are dry but beautiful, covered with fragrant pine trees. Often we find ourselves in the clouds.

As we come over the mountain ridge and then down into the Ixtayutla region things become dry and brown again. On this trip we found that something new was added to the usual sights ... it says "no to the hydroelectric project". (more on that next blog)

El Mosco

A surprising sight greeted us as we drove in to the gate at the El Mosco clinic, the bathrooms were torn down. There were men working in concrete to complete the replacements: brick toilets and showers. How wonderful, however incomplete! Hmm, bless Isidro, he dug a hole out behind the building for us to use that night, and bless Eddie who put up some sheets so we could have some privacy.

The next day we were able to use the facilities without doors. Bucket showers are wonderful under the black starry Oaxaca sky!

We unpacked all the gear, set up tents, washed all the dishes, swept the floors and Gris made the first of several amazing meals.

Laura is always last to get her food, she makes sure everyone else is taken care of first.

We start our mornings early in El Mosco. Coffee and Marias (cookies) at around 6:30, prayer and devotions before breakfast around 8:30.

David is very pleased experiencing his first atole! A hot beverage made with rice or oatmeal.

Construction project

The construction crew got right to work tearing up the hard pan that had served as the church floor and mixing cement the Mexican way.

One of the team members Dwayne, had been on the original construction of the building we have used as housing, clinic and kitchen since 2002. Tracey, Keith, Bruce, Dwayne and David sweat alongside the Mexican workers who had come up from Cacalote to help on the project.

Isidro and Angel take a break with one of the El Mosco kids, Martín.

Hermano Primo was the first baptized convert in El Mosco. It was he who gave us this land for the clinic. His son Miguel and daughter-in-law Andrea attended the Bible Institute at Roca Blanca and now pastor a growing congregation. Here Primo shows off the completed floor!

Medical and Dental outreach
Our medical team included the nursing students from ORU as well as Dr. Tom and Cynthia his wife and Dr. George, his wife Robbin, and Cathy and Crystal from his dental office.

Nursing student Hannah checking in patients

Dr. Tom, a specialist in internal medicine, found working in a mountain clinic without diagnostic studies like blood tests and MRIs an interesting challenge. He was fantastic, and we hope he joins us again soon! Do you see Elisabeth in the background? We were so blessed to have her with us for a couple weeks.

Nursing students Mary and Jenn worked with Cynthia, Tom's wife, who is a pharmacist! It was so wonderful working with her, besides her skills, she had such a desire to serve and expressed a great desire to return with her family. (yeah!)

You know Drs. Dave and Mary Kay. You can see in their faces why it is such a pleasure working with this couple. God has been so gracious to bring us together.

Me with a very able Mixteco-Spanish interpreter, Hermínia. Lupe, Laura's adopted daughter, a nurse, has taught her about medications and various medical procedures. For this reason I only gave her a few instructions on how I wanted her to teach the Mixteco patients who received prescriptions, and she was able to work independently. This freed me to do so many other things!

Dr. George with dental patient Jose Luis.

Cathy cleaning Pastor Miguel's teeth.

Dr. George teaching nursing student Brittany.

Infection control in the dusty dirty mountains, how wonderful that Dr. George brought his staff. Crystal sterilizing equipment.

Some closing shots

Helen worked wherever she was needed, taking temperatures or helping Gris and was a real blessing.

The food was remarkable, everything was fresh, beautifully presented and the salsas were just the right degree of spice and flavor and not too hot. When I asked Gris where she learned to cook for Gringo tastes she said that she watched cooking shows.

Whenever the Gringos come to the mountains the ladies gather to sell their woven servietas.

Llano Verde and prayer

Besides El Mosco we were scheduled to visit two other villages. However political situations, mixed with resistance to gospel often changes our plans. We were able to hold a very successful medical-dental outreach in Llano Verde, however. We were not permitted to take photos.

The evangelistic campaign was very successful as well. Over the 3 days we were in the mountains we saw over 325 patients and 77 responded to the gospel and prayed with brother Jesús our evangelist.

Later when we got the report from Jesús, Carmela, our missionary who works in this area and pastor the small church in Pueblo Viejo made an important commentary as she prayed. She said that the 77 people that responded were seeds. And that the soil must be worked in order to have a true harvest.,

I reflected on what Carmela prayed as we drove home. It brought to mind the parable of the sower, or as I prefer to call it, the parable of the soils. Some think of evangelism as broadcasting the seed, or planting seeds one by one. I have always felt it more important that I first work the soil through prayer, and friendship and through showing the love of Christ.

We are called to make disciples of all nations. It is not so much a call to make people like us. In truth our U.S. culture is separated from the light of the gospel as much as is the Mixteco. Indeed there is as much darkness in the U.S. as in the region of Ixtayutla and El Mosco. Still, that does not excuse us from going outside of our home territory, for Jesus told us to "Go!"

Sofia and Cathy with the children. The time we spend with the children, with each individual is working the soil. Every laugh and smile prepares the soil, as it restores life to neglected ground.

There are things in the Mixteco culture that Americans would call wrong and bad, things that are no longer culturally acceptable in the U.S., things like illiteracy, domestic violence and malnutrition. There are things that I have seen that I still find hard to process, let alone explain, but I will speak of those later.

Please pray that the Light of the Gospel spread through the land of the Mixteco. Pray that God's love will prepare the soil of every heart by our service and by God's revelation.