llegamos

We arrived! It's been a very long day but we're thankful to be here safely! It looks like Mexico, it smells like Mexico (not a bad thing, just distinct) and it sounds like Mexico (a party next door tonight - or maybe all the way down the street or across town, you would think it was in our basement for all the noise you hear - Grant compares the sound to walking outside of Hollister in the mall), so it must be Mexico!

Our day started off rather, um, quickly... we had set the alarm and requested a wake-up call at our hotel at 4 a.m. - turns out neither one of them ever came so at 5:30 we both woke up in a panic and we had packed everything up and were out in the van in 10 minutes! We had originally planned to take the shuttle but because of the time crunch we called Dad and Mom H. (who brought us up last night and stayed in our hotel with us) and they quick ran us over to the airport.

We actually ended up having plenty of time, and all our bags came in under 50 lbs which was nothing short of a small miracle. The carry-on bags had maybe worried me even a little more, especially my sewing machine, but the TSA agent actually asked me if I was the one that sewed (like it would have been Grant) and told me she liked to do embroidery stitches with her's. So I don't know why I even worried. Our other carry-on did not fit in the overhead bin (which I figured it might not but they never check carry-ons, so I pretty much filled it to the max) so we had to take some stuff out but then it did work. That's what laps are for, right? Grant told me that I was "something else". I'm not entirely sure what he meant, but I think it was something along the lines of, "I'm never going to let my wife pack our carry-on bags again". Overall, the airport routine went very smoothly considering how much stuff we had and it all made it. Transporting 300 pounds of stuff around all day though did make me glad for everything we left at home!

Also on our Houston to Guadalajara flight we met a couple of other people/families who are doing missions work. One man was a Mexican who was doing youth ministry and Grant had a good conversation with him and was able to get a good perspective on the "culture of Mexican men" as he describes it. He had converted from Mexican Catholicism (which is quite a bit different than American Catholicism, but those are our labels, not anything official) into Christianity and their chat left Grant with a better insight into the lives, thoughts, and struggles of that particular group.

Once we got to Guadalajara we were able to see Mike and Deb Leman before their flight left so it was good to talk to them a little bit. Mike is the Elder for the Mexico churches.

After Guadalajara its a two hour drive to Ixtlan so traveling was kind of starting to get long, but overall its just really good to be here. When we got to the guest house we were greeted and welcomed by some of the church members who had stayed after a Bible study and we enjoyed a little snack/our supper with them. Pray for our Spanish to come back quickly! So far its, well, not. So lots of nodding and smiling for us.

These next few days will be busy for us as we'll be settling in, getting groceries, and stuff like that... and just figuring out our roles. Regg & Bev and Matt & Ruth will both be going back to the States for vacations at the end of this week so it will be a little different to have them gone. Pray for safe travels for them, too!

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers today! We've been so encouraged by the many notes, comments, and e-mails - we could/can feel every petition that's being lifted up on our behalf. Pray that we could assimilate quickly to the language and culture but that God would get the glory for that. Pray that above all, we could be humble, willing learners, and flexible. There's so much we don't know.

I thought I'd quick put in a picture of the guest house so you all know what it looks like and then I'll post maybe a little video and some more pictures later. :)