Summer in Tuxtla

Our life in Tuxtla Gutierrez has been off to a great start! Lots of friends, fellowship, and being a part of the community. Here we are helping clear the front lawn of Victor and Lety's church - notice there are no familiar gardening tools in sight. That's right - no lawn mowers or weed-whackers here, just machetes and elbow grease.


Our friend Erika Orantes , a native of Tuxtla who is also a JMU student (we met in Harrisonburg, VA!), has introduced us to several of her friends and we have had a great time getting to know them. Here we are at "Las Pinchanchas" restaurant, which serves great food and has dancers that perform typical dances from Chiapas.















Plans don't always pan out, especially it seems here in Mexico where often plan A is more of a step towards plan B and C. While we've had some great opportunities in the past couple of weeks to build friendships, get to know the people and culture and share the gospel, we have also encountered a few snags in our plannign, mainly in the technology area. We are finding out that the students here, at least during the summer do not have the internet access of students in the U.S. or Queretaro. Thus using tools like facebook, messenger, and even basic e-mail invitations has not been a successful way of keeping up with the contacts and friends we are making. We are however learning and adjusting our thinking and strategy!

A real blessing for us has been meeting Mariana, a young professional who works at UNACH several weeks back and now we are practically part of her family! We have hung out at both our place and theirs eating, talking and playing games like "100 Mexicans Said" (Family Fued) and Dutch Blitz...talk about a mixing of cultures! They have been so nice and even invited us to the zoo, a family wedding, and to travel with them to their hometown - we really enjoyed our time there especially swimming in the river, and petting Gonzalo's pet tejon. Besides, how can you beat paying $8.70 for a hotel room?

In the next couple of weeks we are praying to find a few more "people of peace" (Luke 10:6) who are open to hearing about Christ and will invite us into their lives and their circle of friends and family. We excited to see how God will impact the lives of students and young people in Tuxtla through the truth of his Word.

Parting thoughts. . .check out a dance performed by elementary students at their end-of-the year celebration in a very small town Chiapan town. So cute!