Mexico Journal

Oct. 8 - 14, 2011

Saturday, October 8. Torre Fuerte (Strong Tower) is a Bible church with over 2,000 members here in Puebla. They had a baptismal service today with 30 people being baptized. We had well over 100 people here for the day and it was a good time to renew some friendships and make some new ones. All in all, it was a very pleasant day and everyone seemed to have a great time.

Sergio, the chairman of the board, and his wife, Janni, arrived this afternoon for the weekend. I brought a battery for their robot vacuum cleaner down from the States. A full charge was only giving them 5-6 minutes of running time, so they were very pleased to get the new battery pack. Sergio and I had an hour or so to talk and got a lot of good discussion done about the camp. I hope to get some more time tomorrow. We have a number of serious decisions to make that I want to discuss with him before opening up to the whole board. Please pray that the Lord will guide us in the right direction.

Sunday, October 9. I didn't get to go to church this morning because I needed to spend time with Sergio. He and Janni came over to see the progress we've made at camp and they were both very pleased with what has been accomplished just in the month I've been here. I sometimes wonder what we've accomplished and then I make a list and wonder how we've had the time to do it all! Sergio and I had a good time to discuss a lot of topics about the future of Oasis and I'm glad to say that he is solidly behind me in what I want to accomplish. Our next board meeting will be in late November or early December when we plan to present changes we would like to make at Oasis.

Monday, October, 10. It took me nearly an hour to change a light bulb this morning! It is one of the security lights on top of the rooms facing the back alley. I had to get a ladder to get to it and then I dropped one of the thumb screws outside in the alley, so I had to retrieve it. Then I couldn't get the second screw loose, so I had to get a pair of pliers. (We have 4 pair: one needle-nose, two electrician's pliers, and a regular pair.) I couldn't find any of them, so after 20 minutes or so I found a pair of horseshoeing pliers (what we got those for I haven't the faintest idea), but they worked with a thumb screw. By the time I got done, I had climbed up the stairs and onto the roof about 5 times.

They called me from the ophthalmologists office to say me glasses had arrived. I was surprised they came when they said they would! So, I headed downtown. After getting them I went to the big mall again to get something to eat. (This time I paid attention to where I came in and where I went so I would get out the same way.) I got progressive lenses for the first time and find they are going to take some getting used to. In fact, I had a headache after about 4 hours and changed back to my old ones for part of the evening. That's when I found out how much difference the new ones make in my vision.

Tuesday, October 11. We never have cleaned up the yard outside the inner fence where the eucalyptus tree fell last year, so today Cirilo, Willy and I worked on that. We got another 4 big pieces of the trunk cut and we have it down to about 6 feet left, but now we are talking about 6-7 foot diameter and we are probably going to have to burn the rest of it to get rid of it. We got all the rest of the branches cut and piled up for firewood and stacked a lot of the big trunk pieces...man, are they HEAVY!!!

I got some pictures of the baptism Saturday for our web page. Joel had wanted to put some on the web page but everything we had was not very good.

There has been an electrical cord tied to the inside of the kitchen screen door ever since I have been coming, so today I found out there was no current in it and followed it some 50 feet out through the wall, along another wall, over an open passageway, and along yet another wall. Then it disappeared into a block wall. I pulled on it and it wouldn't budge and I couldn't find where it came out, but since the bare end in the kitchen was all rusted I wound up just cutting it.

I'm not sure I like these progressive lenses I got. I'm having quite a time adjusting to them and the reading portion seems to change in the wrong place. I definitely have to look out of the bottom ¼ or 1/3 of them to read without it getting fuzzy

Wednesday, October 12. Alejandra called today to say she was sick and needed to see the doctor. She has been having problems with her kidneys.

The pastor of the group that is supposed to be here this weekend came with his wife late in the afternoon to give us a deposit. He didn't sound too encouraging, as he didn't know how many would be coming. They told Alejandra last week that they expected only 25, which is our minimum but as of today they didn't know just how many would come.

Thursday, October 13. Alejandra came in today, but said she was not feeling the best and was sore from the three shots they gave her. She was drinking an electrolyte all day. I have a feeling one of her problems is that she doesn't drink near enough water. I never see her drinking here at camp, except maybe one glass during a meal.

Friday, October 14. The lake finally rose to where it is coming in under our outside gate. At least we won't get Saturday and Sunday picnic groups that always seem to trash the area outside our fence.

We got a call this morning from the group that is supposed to be here this weekend saying they were canceling. However, when Alejandra told them that all the food had been purchased and what the cancellation charges would be, they changed their mind and said they may not have the 25 required, but that they would be here. Well, we had 23 show up, so that is pretty close. This is the first time that I am aware of that a group has wanted to cancel at the last possible moment. We make very little both in amount and percentage-wise with small groups that come and we would have to charge them a fairly large percentage of the cost just to cover expenses.