Two months gone by!

Hi folks,

Well, I’ve passed the two-month mark and I’m settling in to life here in Rosarito. 

Some of the highlights of the past month:

• Señor Tos: I’m now a Sunday school teacher for the 4-8 yr olds (I thought I was substituting, but it seems I may have inherited the job).   It’s a lot of fun, and good practice for me since I’m not accustomed to being the “authority figure” (the kids all know me as the clown, so it’s a bit of an adjustment for all of us).
• Ensenada: We drove the “Heaven Bound” bus full of kids from the youth group to La Jolla, a beach just south of Ensenada, for a picnic/overnight on the beach (technically we slept in the bus and in tents – it was too cold to sleep under the stars).   Lots of fun for the youth, but not exactly a vacation for those of us who had to keep track of them!
• Easter: Another last-minute substitution put me in the role of Jesus in the crucifixion and resurrection dramas – an experience I won’t soon forget! (check out the photos at http://new.photos.yahoo.com/tfackenthall/album/576460762393004966)
• San Diego : A very nice weekend visiting Ellison, walking around Little Italy, falling asleep in the sun, etc.
• SVA Men’s Mexico trip: Built houses, dug fence posts, fellowshipped and prayed with the men from my church back home.   Good times!
• Staying put: Decided to stay in Rosarito rather than continuing on to Ecuador and Argentina as I had planned.
• Internet: Much like my Kentucky trip two years ago, a computer followed me here, and shortly thereafter, the Internet (I can’t seem to get away from the thing!).   While it makes finding solitude a bit more challenging, there are some nice benefits, such as Voice Over IP phone calls.  I just got a headset yesterday, and if you have one (or a built-in mic) for your computer, you can call me for free via Yahoo Instant Messenger or Google Talk software (email me for my IDs). 

Some things I’ve grown accustomed to:

• lots of handshakes (culture is to shake hands with everyone you come across in a day, both when you arrive and when you leave)
• church services three times a week; miraculous healings almost every day; jumping in the front-row mosh pit during the more lively praise & worship songs (it started with me and a couple of the youth, now there are 20 little kids that join us)
• 5 meals a day; home-made tortillas that are sooooo good you don’t need anything on them; “something sweet” after every meal; “cornflakes” (as Yolanda calls all breakfast cereals) before bed (I may never be able to eat them for breakfast again)
• sleeping through the tortilla factory’s blaring music (3am), the tamale trucks and their loudspeakers (4am), the vehicles spinning and sliding on the hill in front (especially after a rain), and our dogs barking & roughhousing all night (not to mention chewing up anything not bolted down).
• lighting the propane water heater for a shower (after one minor explosion/burn)
  flushing the toilet with a bucket of water, and not flushing toilet paper (goes in the trash or it’s bad news)
• no indoor sinks
• picking up dog “treasures” every morning
• sticky mud when it rains, endless dust when it doesn’t
• no Blackbery!

Tomorrow we are having another “Kids Campaign” like we did last month (only this time it will be for one night instead of four).   The kids choir are next door practicing as I write (currently, it’s a Spanish/polka medley of “Father Abraham” and “I’m in the Lord’s Army”).   The “payasos” (clowns) will be back, so we’ll have practice after the kids are done.   The first campaign I was the Sad Clown who had no friends and no one to tell him how to get to heaven.   Then I was the Traveler Clown who had been many places but still had an emptiness in his heart.  Now I’ll be the Deflated Clown, who is constantly deflating (despite the efforts of his friends to pump him up) and unable to stand until he finally hears the gospel.  

The next week or so will be quite busy, as there is a group from a Korean church who coming to give free medical/dental treatment during the day and church services during the evenings.   They also may help paint the church and finish a fence we started on the new property when the SVA men were here (we’ll see — you get a lot of promises in this business!)
 
Anyway, please keep us in your prayers.  I hope you are well.  God bless you, and please keep in touch!
 
-Tos

He is risen indeed!

Hi folks,

Happy Resurrection Day!

I am just waking up from a nap, since I woke up at 3:30 this morning to prepare for our 5am service (we did two dramas, one of the crucifixion and one of the resurrection).. I was going to be Peter, but the youth who was going to be Jesus missed a couple of the practices, and since I have long hair (and a beard now), now I was Jesus. It was quite a powerful experience to play the role, especially carrying the cross (and being lifted up on it, which was quite surreal).

I think God prepared me for last month’s clown gig by having a little girl in Guatemala tell me I looked like one (at the time I didn’t know whether to take it as a compliment or an insult), and this time it was the scripture “take up your cross and follow Me” that kept popping up, in my devotions, in Jose’s sermons, in the book I am reading (“The Pursuit of God” by A.W. Tozer)… I didn’t think it would be so literal!

Up next is a youth retreat/outreach next weekend, which will surely feature some more skits, and hopefully my young friend Braulio will have an environment to share some of the raps/poems he’s written about following Jesus (Pastor Jose is quite old-school, and I don’t mean that he likes Run DMC!).

After that, there is a group of Koreans that come down every year to do a medical/dental clinic (and possibly paint the church as well). And later, the worship team has been invited to do a concert in Punta Coronet (about 8 hours away), so that will be another adventure for us on the “Heaven Bound” school bus (the same one Jose was driving when he met my friend Sherwood, which started the chapter of the story I’m in down here).

Technically we were supposed to go away for vacation yesterday and the day before, but as always seems to happen here, something wasn’t quite right (this time it was the weather, plus the Easter service preparations). Oh, well, we almost went. One of my main goals here is to get Jose and Yolanda to rest, but it is an uphill battle (as for me, much of my time here has felt like a vacation!)

Some days I feel more like a hobbit than a missionary — I wake up, do some chores, eat some fruit & yogurt, read my Bible, eat “2nd Breakfast” when Yolanda wakes up, do projects/errands, eat a big lunch, take a nap, go visit friends, take a shower, eat dinner, go to church, eat “Corn Flakes” (which is what Yolanda calls all such cereals — mine are usually Toasty-O’s), do some more reading/writing, go to sleep, and do it again tomorrow!

What else? I burned my hand pretty good last week.after putting a flame to the propane-powered water heater without checking whether the pilot light was lit. Doh! (won’t make that mistake again!) It’s healing fine and the hair on my hand/wrist is starting to grow back (Jose and Jose Jr both singed head/beard/eyebrows when they made the same mistake before).

We got the internet last week, because evidently the Mexican government is trying to pretend they are First World and they are requiring certain tax/gov’t forms to be submitted online. But much like my road trip a few years ago (when my godfather got the internet after never touching a computer in his life), so far it’s meant a lot of teaching/helping/ researching and not necessarily more time to write emails (or update my badly neglected blog).

Also, we began an 8-week evangelism class (which at our current pace will take twice that long) which will culminate with some house-to-house gospel sharing, so it’s cool that I am getting some of the training I would have received in Argentina. The scripture memory part is the most difficult for me — I have a hard enough time in English!

As for San Diego a few weeks back, Ellison and I didn’t do much much except walk around and talk and eat, but we had a great time!

Last but certainly not least, the mission trip here three weeks ago of the men from my church back home was a tremendous blessing. We built some houses in Tijuana, played with kids, prayed, and fellowshipped. The team was large, so some of the guys came to help Jose dig fenceposts on a piece of property he bought in a new housing colony nearby. After we built the gate, I noticed that it was at the corner of “Hermosa” and “Bonita” (that is, Beautiful & Pretty), which reminded me of the story in Acts chapter 3 (the gate called Beautiful). So far, God hasn’t told them what to do with the property, but if the street name is of any indication, it will be a place of great healing!

Well, if anyone is still reading this far down, I’ll say goodbye for now! I hope you have a great Easter!

He is risen!

-Tos