How/What We're Doing

After a long, long week of travel (thank you SO much for all your prayers!), we've now been in Ciudad Guzman for more than 3 weeks, and we're finally getting settled in here.  I wanted to take a few minutes and let you all know what we're up to here, and share how you can pray for us as well during this time.

How would you like to drive THIS route with 3 little kids in the car?  Anyone??

Once we got to Guzman, there were two priorities: make the house livable, and rest!  It was amazing how exhausted we were after a week of travel, and it felt like it took us almost a week just to catch up on rest and not feel like we were completely out of energy.  However, during that time, we still had things to do.  We had a home, but not much else.  We didn't have a refrigerator, or any furniture at all except some mattresses that our friend Ariel had purchased for us in Guadalajara before we came down.  So, we very quickly had to find our way around the city enough to get started!  We managed to find a new little family owned furniture store next to the hotel we stayed at the first few nights, and we bought a dining room set and some couches there (we were able to get those thanks to the generosity of College Heights Baptist Church, who held a garage sale for us the weekend we left and sent the proceeds to us to get started).

The volcano overlooking Ciudad Guzman, as seen from the roof of our house.

The kids in front of one of the fountains downtown.

Thanks to Pastor Julian, who pastors a church here in Guzman, we found a place where we could also get a refrigerator and a washer.  Armed with these items, we felt ready to start living in our home!  Even then, there was a lot for us to learn.  For example, we now have a gas tank (on top of our house)... so, how do we get it filled?  And now I have a gas water heater, which is totally new for me... so how do I light it? (I know, I know, I'm a loser for not knowing that... but I know it now!)  Where do we shop here?  What's available, and what are we going to have to do without? (Pickles are really hard to find, and tomato soup is impossible to find... so are a lot of spices that we're used to using).  About half of the lights in the house weren't working, which I found out was due to bad switches.  So, where do I get new ones?  And what's the right vocabulary (I didn't learn much electrical vocab at language school!)  Step by step, we're getting these things figured out, and getting more used to our home and more settled into our house.  I even managed to purchase some lumber (another place where my vocabulary failed me... what's Spanish for 2x4?  Sanded?  Planed?  Anyone??)  and build a bed for Sara and I, so that we don't have to sleep on the floor anymore with our mattress.  Hopefully in the next few weeks, I'll get one built for Gabe, and maybe tackle a bunk-bed for the girls! (Though we also need some shelves for the books and Bibles we bought.)

New table and chairs!

Getting lumber for the first time in Mexico... quite an experience!

The bed that I built for Sara and I.  Just two beds to go!

We've also slowly been getting to know the city.  I (Nick) can find my way around better and better now, and I'm pretty used to the crazy back and forth of the one way streets here.  Almost every street in Guzman is a one way, and some of them are two ways that become one ways.  I even know of at least one street that is a one way, in both directions, depending on where you catch it!  It just switches back and forth across town!  Needless to say, it takes a while to get used to this, and to figure out which one way you want for the direction that you eventually hope to end up.  Also, the #1 form of speed control here in Mexico are what are known as topes: speed bumps.  Every street has them, often times one per block (there's one almost right in front of our house for our street).  When they're new, they're painted yellow, and are easily marked... but most of them are completely faded now, and it's a joy (especially at night) to try not to hit them going fast.  So, eventually, you just learn where they are, and how to drive them.  The final ingredient is the traffic and style of driving here.  4 lanes of traffic often fit into two or three lanes on the road.  One turning lane will have two or three lanes of traffic turning into it.  Buses start and stop, which means that all traffic darts in and out around the traffic.  Plus there's the motorcycles, the bicycles, the potholes, and the cars backing in and out of parking spaces that add to the general madness.  When Sara drives here, she's constantly muttering to herself "be aggressive... be aggressive,"  because being passive here sometimes just brings more trouble than good as a driver.  The other night, Sara said, "Nick, you've learned how to drive like a Mexican," to which I replied, "actually, I've always driven like a Mexican, it just was frowned upon in Wyoming."

Caitlynn in front of some of the fountains in the central plaza.

In the midst of all this, we've starting finding things.  We know a few grocery stores to visit.  We know a few places to get great tacos and tortas.  We found the tianguis (it was called a feria in Costa Rica, we would call it a farmer's market).  Little by little, we're finding what we need to live here.  We're also meeting people, in our neighborhood, at the church we're attending, and around town.  There's Marcello, who owns the bike shop a few blocks away, where Nick goes and visits once a week.  There Maria and Jesus (seriously, and Maria is even pregnant!), who live far away, but Maria works at the school across the street from us.  There's Santiago, who works at the grocery store we visit a lot, and Abel, who works at the Taco place we eat at sometimes.  Right now, these are just acquaintances  who we hope will grow into friendships, and chances to share the Gospel more.

Excited about the berries at the Tianguis in Guzman.

Next time, I'll talk about the ministry here, and what we're envisioning for the future here in Guzman.  For now, let me leave you with a few ways that you can pray for us:

• Pray for us as we continue to settle into the home, and as we try to make things a little more permanent here.
• Pray for us as we continue to meet people, that God will help us make connections and friendships in the neighborhood and in the city.
• Pray for our Spanish, as we still have a lot to learn, and there are a lot of differences between the Spanish here and what we learned in Costa Rica.
• Pray for us as we're away from friends and family over the holidays.  We've already been gone over Thanksgiving and Zoe's 6th birthday, and it's hard to be away during this time.  Pray that God will protect our hearts and be with us.  Pray that people will contact us and encourage us while we're here, too.
• Pray for the kids.  Zoe and Caitlynn have already had some struggles being away from the grandparents and friends we left behind in Wyoming (and our friends in Costa Rica, too), and we've been dealing with some behavior issues, not to mention some random outbursts of crying.  Pray for them as they adapt here.  It took almost 3 months for them to adapt when we moved to Costa Rica.
• Pray that all the support we need will continue to come in, and offer prayers of thanks for all the wonderful people and churches that support us in the ministry here.

Celebrating Zoe's 6th birthday

Thank you so much for your prayers and support!  If you want to know how to contact us here in Mexico, email me at missionguzman@gmail.com, and I can pass along our physical address, phone number, or Skype name.  If you're from a church, we'd love to Skype with your congregation at any time and share what's happening here!  God bless!