Koreans, birthdays, and home in three weeks

Hi folks,

It’s been a busy week but a good one, highlighted by Pastor Jose’s surprise birthday party yesterday.

We had a group from a Korean church in Philadelphia here all week putting on a medical clinic and Vacation Bible School, and when they found out it was Jose’s birthday (and that the congregation seldom remembers it), they wanted to be a part of blessing him. First we had cake at the VBS and all the kids sang for him. Then we turned the Koreans’ going-away barbecue into a surprise birthday party for Jose with all of his kids (and the five youngest grandkids). We gave him an mp3/cd boom box (even though he has no idea what an mp3 is) and a nice office chair (which he jokingly accused me of buying for myself, since my room here is the office and I’m on the computer much more than he is). He was the happiest and most relaxed that I’ve seen him in a long time.

After the barbecue we had our normal Thursday night church service, so I took the opportunity to embarrass him a little more.. I went up after the announcements and asked people to tell a few stories of how God has used Pastor Jose in their lives. Poor guy, he actually hid in the back room for the first few minutes of it, until either his wife or God told him to go up front and receive the blessing of the words being spoken about him. There was hardly a dry eye in the place, and we could have gone on for hours since all of us have many “Jose stories”. Afterward he joked that it was like being at his own funeral, but he was appreciative. Lastly we sang him “Las Mañanitas”, the traditional Mexican birthday song (most of which I surprisingly still remembered from my high school Spanish class).

There are about a dozen other birthdays in the family here over the next few weeks, starting with mine on the 16th (34 — ugh!)

Joe Jr. is on vacation visiting his daughter in Oklahoma, so my list of duties now includes caring for his dogs, horses, and garden twice a day. I wish it had happened sooner, since it finally got me driving down here and thus able to help more by running errands, taking people home from church, etc. It also meant I could pile 30+ kids onto the pickup and go play soccer a couple of afternoons after VBS, which was tons of fun.

The Koreans were a lot of fun and they did a great job with the VBS. Each day the kids sang songs, heard a Bible story, did a related craft, and played games. It was both heartbreaking and hopeful to see how the kids soaked up the love they felt here this week. By the end of it, each us had several kids who’d adopted us and didn’t want it all to end.

Tomorrow morning at 4am we taking the truck across the border to pick up the second load of “new” chairs for the church. I am partial to the current bench setup since they are excellent for napping, but Jose is not very sympathetic, since the new chairs are blue and match the colors of the church much better than flourescent orange. Oh well, I won’t be here much longer so I won’t suffer too much.. Anyway, please keep us in your prayers tomorrow while we are on the road (122 chairs stacked on the back of a pickup is quite a sight, as are Mexico’s roads and drivers)..

It’s hard to believe I will be going home in three weeks! It hasn’t sunk in yet, and it probably won’t until I’m home. I know I will miss it here, and I’m not sure how often I will be able to afford a visit over the next few years. I am excited about grad school, but not so excited about the reality of student loans or a private practice that may prohibit dropping everything every few years to travel.. I’m already scheming about taking 6 months off after my first two trimesters to go to Argentina like I’d planned all along, but we’ll see what happens..

FYI, Yahoo Photos is no more, so I had to move my photos to KodakGallery. It will come up with a login request, but you don’t really have to sign up – just click on “View Slideshow”.
Mexico http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=c76dvf4.a374gik0&x=0&y=pofqq1
Guatemala http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=c76dvf4.5z4ul3v4&x=0&h=1&y=w2nsxp

Que Dios les bendiga! (May God bless you!)
-Tos