December 19, 2006
Dear Friends and Family,
Greetings from my new home in Frijolillo, San Martin Chalchicuahutla,
San Luis Potosí!
Thanks to the grace and care of God I arrived safely on the evening
of the 15th around 8:30 p.m. I spent the night in Chapulhuacanito
with missionary Raquel Bonilla and was then met by my host family
from Frijolillo (Pastor Abel Manuel, wife Martha, and children)
the next noon and we made our way up to Frijolillo. We were met
by the usual army of children who could hear the truck approaching
even before it could be seen, and in 10 minutes they had my belongings
unloaded and carried up to my apartment on the second floor of
the annex of the Most Holy Trinity Presbyterian Church. Talk about
an efficient moving service!
Of course, as I suspected, I was asked to give the meditation
at the youth meeting that evening (three hours after my arrival).
Somehow I was able to get most of my belongings situated and prepare
a message based on 1 Timothy 4:12 by the 5:00 p.m. gathering.
As it turned out, it was a wonderful opportunity to introduce
myself to the youth, as well as encourage and exhort them in their
walk with the Lord.
Of course Sunday was filled with the usual worship activities,
with Pastor Abel and a deacon preaching (whew!). On Monday, however,
Pastor Abel was more than willing to give me the opportunity to
share the Word with the women at their weekly gathering. Again,
a wonderful opportunity to start to get to know them.
Today we went to a mission outpost in La Peña. It’s
actually a mission of the church in Octlamecayo. Following a Huasteca
Presbytery tradition, each of the churches celebrates Christmas
on a different day so church members from throughout the presbytery
can attend; you might call it their version of the Roman Catholic
tradition of the posadas. Pastor Abel had been invited to preach,
so about ten of us from Frijolillo made the one-hour drive in
my truck (newly commissioned under the name Melinda Rankin in
honor of one of the first missionaries to work in Mexico under
the hospices of the Presbyterian Church).
Tomorrow we plan to travel to Tamazunchale so I can purchase
a few necessities, find a cyber café from which to mail
this letter, get my Mexican cell phone switched to a Tamazunchale
number, and meet with Pastor Gaudencio Morales to work over a
letter they are writing to the PC(USA) in gratitude for a $9,000
gift the International Evangelism Office has made to the presbytery
for their new church development work. (They plan to purchase
a truck to facilitate the movement of personnel and well as purchase
some audio-visual equipment and evangelism materials.)
In summary, so far so good down here in the Huastecas. Tonight
as we traveled I felt the same joy I felt in Piedras Negras over
the years—driving through the countryside (the city streets
in Piedras), just in awe of God’s goodness in letting me
live and minister with the people here and in such a beautiful
environment. I admit I’m still in a bit of shock. The reality
that I am staying here has not really sunk in yet, but I am settled
into my apartment. I have a full bath and we actually have running
water this time of year—something they had not had during
my previous visits. And it’s perfect—actually nicer
than my place in Piedras! I take my meals with Pastor Abel and
his family. Pray for his wife Martha. She is just a doll and is
doing her very best to keep me gluten free (down here the sole
challenge is really just keeping prepackaged corn flour out of
my pure corn nixtamal tortillas—for some reason it has wheat
in it). It has been a challenge for her and she is feeling a bit
overwhelmed by it all. I was a bit ill Sunday and had to tell
her why, a hard thing to do. But I think she’s getting the
hang of it. At any rate, I’m enjoying wonderful meals and
am very healthy. Praise God for Sister Martha, but please do pray
for her. Any of you who have tried to feed me know how to pray
for her!
As for my relationship with the rest of the folks, I’m
a hit with the women and the kids. But it seems three things make
me a hit so far: (1) my domino set—the children are addicts
now (2) the fact that I can wiggle my ears, raise my eyebrows,
and flare my nostrils (certainly highly esteemed spiritual gifts)
and (3) my ineptness at washing clothes on a concrete wash board
by the river (I thought I was doing pretty well but the ladies
still found ways to correct me and laugh with me). With any luck
once my clothes dry they won’t be standing up by themselves
due to the excess of soap in them. I did learn that if I get my
feet wet while washing clothes (an automatic), I need to get my
head wet too, in order to keep myself from getting sick. Though
I am unsure how necessary it really is, I certainly must first
believe and follow their instructions, learn from them, for only
then can I legitimately speak into their lives as well.
Yes, I’m learning again what it means to be totally dependent
on others. Language is another arena of learning. Generally they
speak enough Spanish midst their Náhuatl for me to at least
get the gist of what is happening, but if I want to be in on conversations
and really become part of their lives, I am going to have to learn
the language quickly! Though most speak Spanish, they do not speak
it among themselves, so I miss out on a lot. Word by word and
phrase by phrase, I’m getting there. Today’s words
were “xihuala” (she-wah-lah), which means “come”
and “xiya” (she-yuh), which means “go away,”
and “Tech xihuilis se cualtacayot?” which means “Can
you do me a favor?” We ate mitxi (meet-she) for
lunch today, fish. Please pray that the Lord would quicken my
learning so I can really communicate with folks, particularly
the elderly who really do not follow much Spanish. I hate the
fact that I can only preach in Spanish when I know they are not
getting it all. My heart’s desire is to be able to relate
to them at the heart-level (necessary for effective relational
discipleship) and in order to do so, I need to speak their heart
language. Of course, learning it is also an affirmation of my
love and respect for them, something I am anxious to demonstrate.
Please receive my gratitude. I am here because of your love,
encouragement, and support. What a gift it was for me to be able
to visit so many of you over these past two and a half months.
What a gift to have been sent off from Piedras Negras last Sunday
with so many hugs, tears, and kind words. On my last night there,
my stomach hurt from crying so much! What a gift to love and to
be loved so deeply, to call each of your homes my home in a very
real way, and to leave home in order to come home. I guess that’s
the way it is in the Kingdom of God. God is so very good, is He
not? Now you all have a home in the Huasteca Potosina! I sure
hope you’ll come visit! You’ll love it!
Please be sure to let me know how you are and how I can be praying
for you. The hard part about this transition is the challenge
in communication. I am very far away and I feel it. And as happy
as I am to be here, I still miss you too! And that’s a good
feeling to have.
With love and gratitude!
Susie
P.S. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! I’ll
be in a different community every night between now and New Year’s—between
Christmas celebrations, fifteenth-birthday celebrations (“quinceaneras”)
and weddings in the churches here. Truly this is a great time
to have arrived! I’ll be preaching on the 22nd in Soledad
and the 23rd Taxicho (where our first mission team visited in
April) and it’s unlikely I’ll be back on line until
after the first of the year.
P.S. It’s 80 degrees down here! Beautiful! Though a cold
front is to arrive on Thursday. If it were not for the mosquitoes,
it would be perfect!
The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
66 |
