Oral Roberts University (ORU) Student nurses

Just to keep from getting behind I want to fill you in on the last couple weeks since I wrote.

On January 22 we received our third group of nursing students as we said good bye to the students from Chico State. These students will be with us for a month as part of the Nursing Leadership class that Laura teaches for ORU every year.

Happy Birthday Laura!
Eddie and I started January 23rd at 5:30 in the morning so that we could make breakfast for Laura on her birthday and together with Bertha, Jossy and Misa sing “Las Mañanitas” to her as the sun was rising. We were there when she opened her birthday gift from David Nelson, her fiancé. (Note the gift bag, it says “chicks dig jocks!”)

We are looking forward to meeting this guy; he should fit right in with Eddie, Dr. Dave and Berna…..I always say, “next to a life devoted to God, a marriage needs a man who will make you laugh!” The gift by the way is a Spanish Bible with Laura’s new “married” name embossed on the front.

Finally back to El Mosco
The day after the ORU student arrived we headed for El Mosco in the Ixtayutla region. The students assisted us in the clinics as well as started their class project by assessing the nutrition of the local Mixteco population. ORU student Rachel taking physical measurements for nutritional study

We had anticipated problems reaching El Mosco due to political unrest related to the recent elections (the losing political party had blocked the road so as not to allow the new president to come in and take office, only allowing local people to pass twice a day at a cost of $200 peso per vehicle).

By the time we were ready to head for the mountains the road was opened, though we were told by one brother that their were still men with guns out and about presenting a threat. Before we left the base we were assured by Pastor Miguel that everything was safe. We had no obvious resistance to our presence or work during this trip.

ORU student Rachel measuring people for nutritional assessment

We held clinic in El Mosco and in a new town to me, Macahuite. The clinics almost depleted our supply of Flagyl, which is given for amoebas. The students worked in the pharmacy, shadowing the doctors and playing with the children. We were able to do some hygiene teachings as well with hygiene kits left from the Chico State group.

ORU student Brian dressing a child's hand torn on some barbed wire

Mixteco children of Macahuite playing pato, pato, gonzo (duck, duck, goose) with ORU student Mandy

El Brujo
There always seems to be something unusual happening on these mountain outreaches. This time it was when a large group of people walked up our road to the El Mosco clinic, then continued past us and climbed up the mountain to a spot halfway up the mountainside. A while later a group of our patients and visitors were standing near the bathhouse looking up to the spot where the other people had gathered. I had heard a few whispers about what was going on, so I asked Brother Florentino what he knew about it.

“A man just died up there. He was of the Pueblo Viejo church (one of the Ixtayutla region ministries we work with) but decided he didn’t want to walk the way of the Lord anymore. He was a curandero (spiritual healer, usually a witchdoctor, or brujo) before. So anyway, he was walking up the house of the brujo who lives up there, and when he got there he died…look, there are police up there too!”

Soon after, all the people, men and women, filed down the mountain, with some men carrying the body wrapped in a woven mat hanging from a pole, behind them were men in white long-sleeved shirts, with rifles, those were the local polica.

This picture is special, Laurita, a little girl who lives here on the base sent bags of her own toys to give to the children in th mountains!

Little Mixteco boy with new flip flops, and a skinny Mexican dog, is there any other kind?

Almost everytime we go to the mountains, Eddie makes a hospital evacuation trip with someone who is in need of urgent care. This time it was a believer who was 27 weeks pregnant with pre-eclampsia (dangerous condition with high blood pressure). So in the dark we headed down the mountain with Magdelena and her husband Lorenzo. As least she wasn’t in labor like the last time he made the trip!

Berna, Brenda and Scott George, Angie and Linda

Los Suegros
This week has been special and fun. I have mentioned our “adopted daughter and son-in-law” Angie and Berna before, well, Angie’s parents Scott and Brenda, and her good friend, Linda, came to spend a week…and we got in on a lot of the fun. We swam and ate, and laughed a lot! Berna kept saying, “I am so happy, I have all my favorite people here together!” We are so grateful for the family God has given us here, Berna and Angie a such a comfort when I miss my own kids.

These next pictures are for you who have been to the base and know our precious young lady, Misaela, or Misa for short. Last night we drove out to her village for a church service and a wonderful fried chicken dinner (I have been teaching her to cook American food.) Misa lives with us in the clinic, is part of our family, and will be graduating from the Prepa this June. I don’t know how we will live without her.

Misa's father and mother, plus Misa, isn't she beautiful!?!

Prayer
Thank you for your continued prayers. I got to chat online with our daughter Faith the last week. She says that they are really happy enjoying the “simple life” in Mojocuatla. They enjoyed visitors from their home church, His Place for a week and I asked if they were “impressed” at how “hard core” they were living in the primitive indigenous village. She said, “Well, impressed or appalled.”

The children “really like” the school they are attending in the village. Faith is homeschooling them in their English education. Faith says they were surprised how friendly everyone is. Please continue to pray for their safety, and particularly that no scorpions get into their house, or near the baby!

Drs Dave and Mary Kay are still in Wisconsin with their son, grandchildren, Aiden and Lucas and daughter-in-law Cindy. Cindy is not doing well and is still in hospice, but may be moving home. We ask that you continue to pray for the family, and also for Dave and MaryKay’s other children, Julie and Keta and their families that they will trust in the Lord, and find His comfort for their brother at this time.

Thank you so much for praying for us. I have been feeling remarkably well and am rejoicing. We both have our share of insect bites, and sometimes feel the weight of the heat here, but God has been very faithful to us.

blessings to you all,

Eddie and Leeann

Oh, by the way go back and check the last blog......found the pictures that I wanted to add!

Chico State Univ. CA Nursing School

Well, our last group of nursing students is on their way back to the aeropuerto as I type this. Yesterday Eddie and I had to drive Drs. Dave and Mary Kay Ness to the airport for an emergency trip back to the states, and I am worn out. So today I will rest and write this blog, before Eddie brings the next group of students and we head out to Ixtayutla tomorrow.

Before I get started, did I tell you that Drs. Mary Kay and Dave Ness, and our friend Bertha Guild arrived from upstate New York? We met Dave and Mary Kay the first time we came to Roca Blanca in February 2004 and have become close friends as we work together every year.

Dave, Eddie and Mary Kay getting ready to bed down in Cerro del Aire

For those of you who know of Dave and Mary Kay, you may remember that we have been praying for their daughter-in-law Cindy for the last few years. Cindy has been fighting breast cancer, and it appears that the fight may be over soon. Please pray for them all, Eric, the doctors’ son, and their grandchildren Aiden and Lucas, as well as Cindy.

Chico State University Nursing Students
Nine students and their instructor, Janelle Gardner, were with us for a week. They traveled with us up to a very small Chatino village. We held a clinic, they did health teaching and also distributed clothing.

Janelle and toothpaste

The girls brushing...

The boys brushing

Jill and Valarie sizing up the children for clothing

It was a bit of an adventure. They slept on the concrete floor of the little church and discovered that roosters in actuality crow all night long. They used a pit toilet with a hole in the ground, sticks laid down with a wide gap for the floor, and colorful tarps that blew in the wind, for privacy. Our cook however had cooked for gringos for years, and she provided us with the best of Mexican style food, plus French toast!

Susan, Lisa, Cassidy, Jill and Becky getting ready to bed down

We saw over 60% of the 80 inhabitants of Carrizal. We found that the hygiene teaching that the students brought was very much needed. We saw mostly skin infections and parasites, especially skin parasites such as scabies and lice.

We left Carrizal earlier than we had planned. The medical clinic had been announced to the adjoining villages, but events preceding our arrival came into play. There was news, or rumors, of children in the region being kidnapped and murdered around Puerto Escondido, and people had been be warned to avoid strangers, especially gringos. We had been given permission to be in the region, and Laura is familiar to the people of the villages that we passed through, still because of the fear the people did not arrive and so we left a day earlier than planned.

Dave, Laura and Mary Kay interviewing Paulino

Hogar de Nueva Vida
We did get to take the students to an orphanage in Puerto Escondido the following day where they did health teaching and handed out new toothbrushes. While there, we encountered Paulino, a man who hand been sleeping outside of the gate of the orphanage. A pastor had found him down at the central market, very sick and probably dying. He had no doubt suffered an embolus in his leg some months ago, and probably a bleeding ulcer. The greatest need Dave and Mary Kay found when they examined him was nutrition.

Our medications and supplies are supplied by the generosity of many... thank you!

Thank you, thank you!
When the students arrived from California they were carrying extra baggage…..loads of vitamins, Ibuprofen, Tylenol, bandages and medical supplies. Cassidy brought money from a couple in her church, which probably purchased the equivalent of over $300.00 U.S. in medications. Perhaps you don’t know, prescription meds like antibiotics are cheaper here, but over the counter meds are not. Some meds that we like to use are not even available to us, especially Neosporin and Triple Antibiotic Ointment.

Also provided by Cassidy were a wide variety of items (filling 3 duffle bags) collected by an organization whose purpose is to salvage valuable, unused items from hospitals, like I.V. tubing, bandages and tape. These are things I was becoming desperate for.

Drs Mary Kay and Dave arrived with their pick-up carrying computers and boxes and boxes of medical and pharmaceutical supplies, including Lidocaine with epinephrine and injectable Benedryl, things that I had, but were expired, and was not able to replace here. Also, their church, Elim Fellowship of Lima, New York sent money for medications which will help us this month as we go back up to the mountains.

It has come to our attention... some of our friends, specifically Laura and Sue has given our blog address to their supporters to inform them of clinic activities. Laura, the director of the clinic and Sue co-director of the Roca Blanca ministry are very, very busy people. So if you are new to this blog, Welcome!

I wanted to add a calendar of upcoming events so you can pray for us:
Oral Roberts University Leadership Class January 22 - February 18. This will involve two trips up to the Ixtayutla Region.
David Nelson and students February 16 - 22. David is Laura's fiance, he is bring a group of his students to do children's ministry, and we plan to go to the Itayutla region as well.

Laura and Leeann

Personally speaking. Eddie has been asked to work with the base water chlorination projects. We currently do not know too much about this, except that Roca Blanca has been instrumental in helping procure safe water for Yucuya'a in the Ixtayutla region. Now we understand that these $5,000.00 U.S. chlorination units are being purchased by supporters in the U.S. and Eddie has been asked to work with the installation project.

This requires prayer to accept such a responsibiltiy, it could have many ramifications in our lives and ministry. Please pray. Also, thank you who have been responding to our request for support. Please continue your prayers.
Eddie and Leeann

Okla.Bapt.Nursing School and Chatino village

Worshipping with the Chatino

Oklahoma Baptist Nursing Students visit a Chatino church
Well, we were supposed to go to El Mosco and a new location in the Ixtayutla region this week, but political rivalries and a road blockade changed our plans. Instead we went another direction, to Ixtapa, a little village in the Juquila region of Oaxaca. We were only there for a few days, but they were eventful days and I wanted to share them with you.

Roca Blanca has been hosting nursing students from OBU this week. We just returned from two days of travel and two days of clinic in Ixtapa. The Lord really gave these young women a memorable experience.

After an eight-hour trip over dusty bumpy roads we arrived in this Chatino village. It still amazes me to find these communities deep in the mountains so far from commerce and conveniences. When we arrived we were fed scrambled eggs in a black bean soup and tortillas. As we poured our beverages someone asked if it were purified water…oops, suddenly the pitchers disappeared and after the bottles of water we had carried up the mountains were unloaded, we were brought something “safe” to drink.

Just a little scary, but safe in God's will
We were informed by Pastor Armando that the town president had given us permission to stay in the town hall building, and hold our clinic there. When we arrived at the town hall, right across from the large Catholic church, there were a dozen or so men inside presumably talking with the President (mayor). We were very tired and ready to find places for our sleeping bags, but that had to wait.

Soon a crowd began to gather, Pastor Armando said to Laura, “Don’t worry, everything is fine, it’s safe, but please just sit down here and pray.” As we sat in the patio area of the town hall more people began to congregate. As we all prayed quietly we became aware that we were the center of some controversy. Those of us who looked around and watched the faces saw anger; but the anger was not directed at us. It appeared that they were disputing with the president, many people were standing there quietly listening to the angry talk, watching to see what would happen.

The voices were loud, and angry, but we couldn’t understand what they were saying at all because they were speaking Chatino. As we sat there some of us felt quiet at peace, some of the girls admitted to being a little nervous, Eddie says that he felt that it could turn ugly, but there was nothing else for us to do but to pray and trust God. Apparently the people were telling the president that if he let the strangers stay in their town hall, they would kick him out of office.

The crowd appeared to be growing; perhaps 300 Chatino people, men, women and children surrounded us, and our cars. We saw them sitting on the bumpers of our trucks, we wondered about the security of the trucks’ contents but didn’t dare to move from where we sat. After about an hour Pastor Armando came and told us to quietly get into our vehicles giving us each a guide to direct us to a home where we would be staying instead of the town hall. (sorry that I couldn't take a picture, but you understand)

Chatino hospitality
We were taken to a home where we felt safe and at home. The students took the bucket toilets in stride, as well as the bucket showers. We slept there and then drove to another home across town where we ate and saw patients. We were fed well, four times a day as is the Mexican way, desayuna at 7:00A.M, almuerzo at 10:00 A.M., comida at 3:00 P.M. and cena at 8:00 or 9:00 P.M.

Desayuna, sweet coffee, bread and cookies

Chatino women cleaning up after comida

Brisk ride from where we slept to where we ate and worked

Over the two days we were there we saw over 170 patients. At every location where we hold clinics there are predominant ailments; here it was parasites. I came pretty close to running out of Flagyl and Abendazol.

Professor Hernandez and students preparing injections for sick infant

I had most of the nursing students rotate through the pharmacy. This group of students seemed to be the best I have ever had. They developed a system that made everything run smoothly. I have already talked with them and gleaned some ideas for upcoming outreaches.

Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings Thou hast ordained praise
There were children everywhere! They loved the games that the students taught them. They colored the pictures and watched the heath teachings eagerly. Their beautiful brown faces beamed. Around us the mothers sat with their babies who invariably cried desperately when we tried to get a temperature or weigh them.

The first day of clinic was closed early so that everyone could attend a worship service where we would share as visitors from the outside world. It appears to be a great encouragement to these indigenous churches that they are a part of something much bigger than their isolated world. For us, it amazes us as we realize that the day is coming when we will stand with not just the people we go to church with, but with Chatino and Mixteco peoples together worshipping at the throne of God.

I have already described the vibrant worship of the Chatinos in my last blog….but how thrilling it was to stand with them in their own small church building singing, clapping and dancing. But wait, there’s more!

The children, ages 4 to 12, stood at the front of the congregation during the worship. They were packed in about 5 deep the width of the church building. They clapped and sang loudly, and then, they started jumping up and down in dance. I watched their faces, they were happy to be there. Some had their eyes closed, faces upturned in true worship. As I looked behind me, I saw the adults, women on the right, men on the left, singing and clapping as well. But the children did not look back. It was as if the little children were leading them.

May the next generation carry the Word to the nations!
As I considered these young ones, I remembered our own kids. I remember all that Jesus said about the worship of children, and that we must come to Him as a small child.

I watched the parents with their kids here, the tenderness and relationship was obvious. I know that there are other areas, like in Ixtayutla where the love of father and mother is not a given, but is rather replaced with bitterness and violence.

I think that a child that is loved may be better able to receive the Lord’s love, and be more able to respond. And it challenges me in my ministry as I give my love to these people of the mountains. How do I show, and sow, God’s love and affection?

The last verse of the Old Testament, in Malachi 4:6, the scripture talks about turning the hearts of the fathers back to the children…This is something that is very big in the heart of God, and it is therefore something very important for us to work towards and pray for.

Prayer Requests
Please remember to pray for Jay, Faith, Isaiah, Elisabeth and Kai. They are now living up in Mojocuautla among the Cora people. They plan to be there for 6 months to learn the language as the first steps in making a true impact for the gospel among the Cora.

Like the Mixteco, violence is not uncommon with the indigenous Cora. They live in poverty and hold very tightly and proudly to their old ways, including the worship of their gods, and particularly the skull of King Nayar.

Jay tells me that the kids have started the public school, which teaches in both Spanish and Cora, and that they like it. They will also have a retired teacher to tutor them in Cora.

Life for the family will be rather primitive by their usual standards in Cofradia. Their house has one brick room and a bedroom made of clay and sticks. Jay commented that most of the hardship will probably fall on Faith, as she will not have her washer and dryer, etc.

So please pray for them. And that God will keep away the scorpions, and keep the children safe in every way. So please pray for them. And that God will keep away the scorpions, and keep the children safe in every way.

I put this picture of a Chatino mother and son in to show our daughter Faith how she can do dishes and laundry with baby Kai on her back!

Also, please remember us as well. God seems to be leading us to greater commitment here in Oaxaca. We need to get a visa that will allow us more time, and cover my work as a missionary nurse. A few people have begun share in our financial support, for which we are very grateful. We would appreciate you praying about joining with us in prayer and in financial support.

Support checks can be written to The Gathering, P.O. Box 512, Mount Vernon, WA, 98273, in the memo space write “support for Eddie and Leeann Kelley”

May God’s mercy cover you and give you joy!
Eddie and Leeann Kelley

Festival Victoria 2007

Festival Victoria 2007
Well, it is over. The several thousand people that attended Festival Victoria have returned to their homes. The tents are still standing, but the cars are all gone. Manuel has a group of workers raking up the trash.

Rossy dispensing meds

Medical Campaign
This was Eddie and my second Festival experience. All in all this clinic was a lot calmer and better organized than last year's. We had a better tent facility than before and the weather was a bit cooler. Our staff consisted of doctors, medical students, nurses, our clinic staff and at least 10 volunteers.

Newly married Paulina in Reception

A campaign of this size involves a system and ours seemed to work pretty well. We used sheets to cordon off consulting rooms for the doctors and I provided them with a formulary of the medications we had available to prescribe. We also had a treatment area for injections and I.V.s . We kept the reception area about 30 feet from the clinic area to reduce the number people pressing around the pharmacy work area.

Betty and Neli labeling meds

The reception volunteers got names, weight and blood pressures (and the temperatures of children) on paper (ficha), and placed the fichas in a centrally located plastic bag. The doctors came and got the fichas and called the patients and when the consult was complete brought the prescription to a box and directed the patient to spiritual care. The pharmacy workers took prescriptions out of the box, filled them and waited until the patients were prayed for, then gave instructions on taking the meds. We had placed the all medications in card-board boxes organized by classifications. We saw over 350 patients in 2 1/2 days.

Dr. Baltazar General Surgeon from Oaxaca City

Dra. Antonieta

Drs Enver and Baltazar. Med students Elijah and Edgar. May I note that these were a really great team to work with!


The coolest part of the campaign for me, besides some really needy patients we saw, was working with the Mexican medical students. It was gratifying to see the medical doctors work together with the students. Somehow I was the person the students came to with questions about the meds. That was satisfying for me, I love working with the pharmacy and try to understand the actions, usages and precautions that accompany each product in my pharmacy. How I would love a job like this in the states….except it would have to be a job that let me come and go every 6 months (thank you Mira Vista!)

Dra. Dulce colaborating with Med student Jesse over patient diagnosis and care.

We closed the clinic around 5:00 o’clock. But the evening brought numerous cases of sick children, one acute abdomen (which turned our to be an ovarian cyst), and one young dancer with a very high fever (104° F). I was dressed up for the evening service but ended up changing into scrubs so that I could help put the young dancer into the shower to cool her down.

Yeseret and her parents. She came in during the evening with otitis media. She shares a birthday with our granddaughter Sarah, so I had to take her picture!

Celebration Worship!
The best part of Festival for me is the evening worship. The churches I attend in the United States worship differently. As our son Josh often says, we all have different styles and expressions that we are comfortable with. I am comfortable with the vibrant Mexican celebration style worship. I usually don’t dance too much, and it isn’t easy for me to jump up and down like they do, but I love it!

I love to be in the midst of people celebrating the glory, and the power of the Lord that has set them free from the bondage of sin and idolatry. You have to be here, walk the streets, see the children, understand the violence and hopeless to understand. Not that I doubt the same hopeless exists in the United States, but we have many diversions that help us ignore our plight.






To see the expression on the face of a young woman who realizes how she is loved by God, or a young man who is growing in his understanding of WHO God is, brings great wonder and joy to my heart. It takes me back almost 40 years when I began to make the same discoveries.

I loved watching a short Chatino woman dressed in her colorful blouse and bright yellow skirt with her long graying braid bouncing behind her as she dances, a kind of trotting dance, with her arms raised high over her head.

Amuzgo woman and grandchild

Chatino women

One day all tribes and people will gather at the Throne!
The Festival opens with a recognition of the many tribes and nations that are called to worship God. Last year flags from each indigenous group were carried by representatives of the group, and then someone in white carrying a banner proclaiming Jesus' name, he wore a crown and gold colored belt and rode in on a white horse. The horse was magnificent as he pranced proudly before the crowd. it was fantastic!

This year the flags were carried in by dancers in different national and indigenous groups’ costumes. The flags were rolled up as the dancers lined up across the stage. And as each one by one began to unfurl their flag, a figure dressed in black kneeling on the ground in front of them began to struggle with the dancer grasping the flag to prevent it from being displayed, pulling the flag back toward the ground.

Needless to say, there was music playing, loud and vibrant. A young woman came dancing powerfully, as if in battle, pointing at the dark figure, rebuking it. As she danced in front of each flag it was eventually released by the adversary and displayed in a most triumphant manner. So graphic was this display, it was breathtaking! I am sorry it was too dark to get a picture.

Cutting open my coconut

Those of you who have attended Bible camps, or missionary camps may have some idea of the county-fair type atmosphere that we have been living the last couple days. There has been food to buy, and t-shirts and CD’s. I bought myself a coconut, which I smothered in lime and chili and salt.

Unlike in the states the campers sleep out of doors under big tarps put out for them, on the ground. This year there were more tents than last, and I think a saw a bus converted into a motor home in the parking lot.

Chatino family

Such a variety of peoples! Different languages and styles of clothing were seen all over. The Mixteco from El Mosco were here, they are probably the most simple living group of those attending Also the Amuzgos came, with their beautifully woven dresses. The Chatino women either wear very brightly colored blouses and skirts, or simple dresses adorned by aprons.

Hey, I have gone on too long. I so wish that you could experience the sights and sounds of Festival Victoria.

If by any chance you would like to experience it, let us know. You are welcome to come and help us by counting pills or taking blood pressures next year!

Seriously!

Eddie and Leeann

A Reminder of the Purpose of Christmas

Chatino family at the clinic during surgical campaign last year

What can the powerless do?
It was an interesting adventure driving through the mountains from the coast to Oaxaca City, and then to Puebla. Wednesday morning we headed out, Dan and Angelica and their baby Jacob in their Explorer, and us carrying the big items in our Toyota pickup. It was a long, winding, road to Oaxaca City made tolerable by anti-nausea drugs and dry toast, and made enjoyable by the lush jungle and sermons on CD of the book of Romans by our old pastor Bruce.

Two hours into the 7-hour trip the cars in front of us stopped. What first appeared to be construction work turned out to be something very different! Eddie and Dan got out and walked up the road to discover that a large group of Chatino men had barricaded the road with cars, a pile of dirt and a discarded refrigerator. They came back with the news that the protestors were waiting for government authorities to arrive to negotiate with them.

A sheet of paper explained their demands. The people of San Juan Lachao had in the previous year been promised that the dirt road to their village would be paved, that they would be given a Central Salud, and subsidies to buy farm equipment. We were told that $13,000,000 pesos had been allocated for the projects, but now the money had “disappeared.”

After 4 hours we were told, “Hurry, hurry! get in your cars, they are going to let 30 cars pass through!” Fortunately many cars had turned around and returned to Puerto Escondido so we made it through. As we passed the protesters, I looked at their faces. They were solemn as we passed; I raised the back of my open hand to them, which is a Mexican gesture for “thank you”. Some nodded and made small smiles. I told Eddie I wished I could take a picture, he said, “don’t.” Sorry I don't have pictures.

All through those 4 hours of waiting, wondering if we too should turn around, we found ourselves relaxed, calm….and in sympathy with the people who had changed out travel schedule. I thought, “What can the powerless do?” Year after year, decade after decade, corruption and fraud handicap even the educated, modern Mexican. How much harder for the mountain people, the indigenous, the bottom rung of the ladder in Mexican society, those who are just trying to live and raise their family. As we waited we prayed, not just that the road would open up and that we could be on our way, but also that justice would be done.

Precaution Pilgrims in Progress!

Struggling in the darkness
We encountered the barricade at the turnoff for the town called Juquila. If you lived in Oaxaca you would be very familiar with the Virgin of Juquila. You see pilgrims all over Puerto Escondido and on the coastal highway from Acapulco to Huatulco (they are in the cars and buses displaying a picture of a statue adorned with flowers, usually gladiolus, on the front of the vehicle.)

As we drove this winding road to Oaxaca we passed bicycle after bicycle with riders wearing t-shirts identifying themselves as pilgrims to the shrine at Juquila. Then after we passed the barricade we saw more. It got darker and darker. We began to pass bicycles in the dark some with blinking lights, other not. Up and down the mountainous roads, mile after strenuous mile on the narrow dangerous road they pushed on, in the dark.

I began thinking “Why?” What were they trying to achieve. What were they trying to earn? Although I knew the answer, face to face with the reality, the danger and the difficulty of the task, it scarcely seemed believable.

Our hosts family, Pastor Jorge and Margloria are at the right

When we finally arrived in Oaxaca Pastor Jorge and his wife Margloria met us. After a night’s rest and hot shower our hosts fed us a wonderful Oaxacan breakfast of Mexican hot chocolate, pan dulce and tlayudas.

As we talked with our hosts I had to return to what I had seen of the pilgrims of Juquila. I have lived and traveled in Mexico for a long time and am familiar with the people’s devotion to their local idols, but somehow the toll that that devotion extracts from their lives had never impressed me quite so deeply as the bicyclists struggling in the darkness.

When I told our host what we had seen, Margloria agreed that the pilgrims were trying to earn points to gain heaven. She then said, “It is all out of ignorance!” She maintained that they didn’t know any other way. Pastor Jorge gave examples of how when people hear the good news of the gospel they rejoice that a better way has been provided through faith in Jesus Christ.

Dan explained to me later that several years ago Margloria’s family had had a terrible car accident on the same road we had traveled. The family was either en route, or returning from a pilgrimage to Juquila. Margloria’s first husband had been killed, her daughter Jossana badly injured. Dr. Angelica had had the opportunity to care for Margloria in her depression after her husband’s death, and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with her.

As a history teacher Margloria explained to us that the worship of the idols go back for centuries long before the Spanish brought Catholicism to the new world. She affirmed that Catholic identity had been applied to the ancient deities and the devotion had gone on as before. This is called syncretism. All the way back home, every time we passed a shrine to either Our Lady of Soledad, or Our Lady of Guadalupe, I saw that these were not Catholic expressions, but something much older.

Dan and Angelica's little miracle, Jacob Daniel

image of Oaxaca City

After delivering Dan and Angelica's things in Puebla, we got up early and enjoyed a nice afternoon in one of our favorite cities, Oaxaca. The trip back to the coast was amazing. We traveled along the ridge of the moutains and enjoyed the most dramatic views of small houses hugging the mountainsides, and little villages clinging to the sides of mountains across steep valleys.

Tacos, literally on the side of the road!

Is it really Christmas?
Tomorrow is Noche Buena, or as we call it in the U.S., Christmas Eve. (Noche Buena is also the flower we know as poinsettia, which grows as large shrubs everywhere in Mexico where we have visited.) We will be picking up the medications that we will distribute to patients at Festival, and then going home with Berna and Angie to celebrate in San Jose de Progreso, as we did last year.

Christmas Day we have meetings scheduled for 8:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M. as we prepare for Festival Victoria. Somewhere in between I will have to make sure all my supplies are ready. The following morning we will set up the clinic outside under tents and start seeing patients.

We have been listening to a little Christmas music; right now it is Bing Crosby. I have some lights up in our room, and a wreath up on our door…and a tiny Christmas tree about 8 inches tall. I think I will make some tea and we can eat some cookies our daughter-in-law sent with us when we left Washington.

You can imagine that it is difficult to be away from our children at Christmas, and Thanksgiving, and Easter (and Sarah and Grace’s birthdays). I have already shed a few tears, and will likely shed more tomorrow or Christmas Day, but…

People like Eddie and I who have so much to be thankful for: wonderful children who are faithful to our God, precious grandchildren, friends whom we love, and who love us dearly, really should not begrudge God of anything. It has been our determination to spend our live on things that last forever. That is what we taught our children, and now WE get to live it!

Those of you that have your family around you enjoy them and be grateful. Recognize that the baby in the manger was the Eternal God, the First and the Last, and the One who gave His life as the price for our sin….and who gave us the right to call God our Father.

Merry Christmas

Love Eddie and Leeann