Perspective

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the movie, “The Matrix.” If you haven’t seen it, stop reading this post immediately and go watch it. Good. Now that you’re back, I think you’ll have a better understanding of where I’m coming from.
So the main character Neo is stuck. He’s stuck in a rut of a cubicle existence just meddling his way through life. He’s given the choice to go on living the way he always has, or to follow an unknown path that will be painful, yet show him what life is really all about. He chooses plan B and is awakened to a reality that shakes him to the core.
We’re coming up on our 4 week anniversary here in Mexico. I can hardly believe it. In some ways it has gone really fast, and in some ways it feels like we’ve been here for years. Moments of great loneliness wash over us. We have times when we question everything we’re doing here. Simple daily tasks of bathing, drinking, and eating take much longer than they should and by the end of each day, we lay down exhausted wondering if we’ve accomplished anything.
At this point, we feel like we’ve been camping for 4 weeks and the initial excitement and fascination of being in a new country has begun to ware off. It’s kind of like, OK this is not just a vacation, this is real life and there’s real work to be done. We had a chance to pray for a lady the other day that was just diagnosed with a terrible form of cancer. Yuck! I hate cancer and the effects it has on the human body. It truly makes me sick to my stomach. Sometimes I feel like our work here is moving inch-by-inch but when we prayed for her, I was reminded of what someone told us, that simply by being here, carrying the Holy Spirit into each situation is undoubtedly going to change lives. And isn’t that the point…to see lives changed.
I’m constantly blown away by the amount of work to be done here. Right in the back yard of America are millions living with tainted water supplies, corrupt government and local officials, hopeless in many ways and simply getting by. Mexico was never my first choice of a mission field and I was reluctant to come down here. However, the more I see and the more people I meet, the more my heart melts and my vision increases. But what can I do in one lifetime? There’s so much to be done that sometimes it’s hard to know where to start. Sometimes I feel paralyzed by what we face and just want to give up and head back to Colorado. Oh, how we use to complain that our house was too small or we didn’t have a nice enough this or a nice enough that. Wow! Now we’re totally thrilled to take a hot shower and sleep in a place that is not filled with bugs. Our old house seems like a mansion, and in ways we thought we were poor, we actually lived in opulent wealth. I remember a couple years ago, the night I came home from India, Smith and Zaisy were fighting over a cup of milk when we had a couple of gallons in the fridge. I broke down in great sobbing cries and I had a hard time containing my emotions. Don’t be deceived, not matter how hard or how poor you think you are in America, you have so much more than most.
We moved here to see lives changed, and so far I think it’s our lives that have changed the most. Perspective changes so much. I don’t think I will ever again long for a gigantic house filled with stuff. The people here live with great contentment in what most would consider shacks. I can see we have so many great things to teach and to share, and yet maybe we have more to learn from them then they do from us.
So the Matrix of our reality has been busted wide open. We are so grateful to be down here and are so appreciative of the many sacrifices that so many make for us to be here. We will push on through the loneliness, and through the pain of separation of everything we’ve always known. We will continue to push and shatter the limits of our comfort zones. And if one life is changed, if we can bring a smile to one face each day, if one person can come to know Jesus, every single sacrifice we have made will be well worth it.

So thank you all for everything you do to make this all possible. For the King and His Kingdom!!!

Top Ten

Top Ten Things to Remember when Going on the Mission Field:

10. Always, always, always shake your towel out before applying to your naked body (sing with me: La Cucaracha!)
9. You know that feeling like something is crawling on you? Well, it probably is.
8. You can never bring too much peanut butter
7. Go ahead and give your fridge a big kiss and tell it how much you appreciate it.
6. Do the same to your water faucet that gives you clean, cold or hot water with the
flick of your wrist.
5. In case you didn’t know, you can eat a cactus (and it’s not so bad)
4. “Clean” has many different levels (Barb, no amount of Purel could touch this)
3. If the lady in the store grabs your baby without asking, make sure she gives him back.
2. You don’t have the choice whether or not to pray and kick out the devil. He
thinks he owns things that you know are not his.
1. When the Lord says He will open a door, He means it. Lots and LOTS of doors.


We have moved to a new house for the next week or so. The house belongs to The Way of The Cross Ministry (if you Google Aldama, Mexico, you’ll pics). The director of that ministry is a friend of Don Smith’s. We got to stay there with one phone call. Grandpa Jim and Grandma Carol Nowlin are here in town and it’s the best to get to have them around to talk to or translate or buy us tamales or hold babies or spoil our kids with candies and cookies. We’re enjoying every minute of it! Thanks for having groovy parents, Jim.

Easters was great! We did have deviled eggs, Dave. Grandma Carol colored them pink and green and blue. It was neat to get the chance for the kids to understand more what Easter is really about.

We love everyone and can’t wait connect with you! Love y’all!!!

Tampico

Mom loves Walmart


Ay Caramba!
Check out the various contents!
Hi kids, I'm the Banana Man
Sweet boy "Spatula City!" A Mexican dollar store

Chillin'
View from our window
Praise God for cribs!
Our tiny room

Check out those guns!

Today I am sitting in a hotel room with Ax sleeping in the borrowed cuna (crib) using all the internet I can before going back to the 1950’s. Yesterday we bought all the things we would need for a while, and then proceeded to get lost on the Mexican highways until it was dark. I think the roads turn to hot lava that eats cars at night, so we drove back into Tampico to find a hotel room. Just a few hours before I had asked the Lord if we could someday stay in one of the nice hotels here. So here we are with free WiFi and breakfast. Jon and the kids are swimming in the empty pool. Everyone in all of Mexico is at the beach today because it is Santa Semana. The “Holy Week” of celebration preceding Easters. And apparently they all stay in hotels as well. We got the last room at the Inn and it is gorgeous. The view from the 7th floor is beautiful in the daytime. You can see the water. Down in the lobby you can get almost anything you might need in the vending machine. From chips to cigarettes to matches to hair gel to pan dulce to what I think is a diaper wrapped in cellophane, you name it. We chose the toothbrush taped to travel toothpaste combo. 35 pesos.

So, I am going to email for an hour. Take a 30 minute hot shower. Go back to Wal-Mart if only just to buy some gum because Wal-Mart is my favorite! Take my kids to McDonald’s for lunch (enjoy that guys). And maybe even get some ice cream at Baskin Robin’s. Then we will check the map thoroughly and head on back to the Rancho del Reyo.

The Lord is our good Father who gently molds and trains us for heavy stuff while also making our dreams and desires a reality. He’s my favorite.

Hello From South Of The Border

Home...home on the range...
Smith on one of his horse rides

Smith and Raul having fun being caballeros (cowboys)

Making tortillas together

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Our favorite 2 year old in the world!

Smith and Raul eating freshly picked lemons with salt

The kids setting up their orange juice stand

Our little cowboy

Ax has taken to solids very quickly!

We are driving to the city of Tampico. Hopefully we can find an easy connection to the internet. Last time we had to sit in the car, sweating profusely, trying to use a weak signal from some local casa. They say Tampico has a Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart and even Baskin Robins. I’m soooo stoked!

Over the last few days, I feel like our kids are at the best summer camp getting to experience things they will remember forever. Don and Ginger Smith were having a ranch party for their friends with whom they do business on Sunday. We were invited. I can only say that from now on, I call their porch “The Resort”. Our kids joined some other Mexican kids in helping the maids make fresh hugo de naranja from the orange trees next to the house. We had our fill of cold drinks from the four coolers full of ICE! Don and Ginger introduced us to everyone as if we were honored guests. One of their guests left their eleven year old son to stay at Rancho del Rayo for a few days. Raulito and Smith rode horses and went fishing and swimming until his dad came back. Miss Ginger told Smith that the horse, Abogado, is his for the duration of his stay.

While Jon and Zaisy made tortillas, Smith went with Ginger and her guests on a two hour ride. The little boys and I watched Veggie Tales and Davis peed in the grass. It’s a fun life we lead.

Well, we love you all! Thanks for supporting us so much! We couldn’t be here without you!

Learning Our Ah, Beh, Say What?

To graduate from my high school you had to take 2 years of a foreign language. I had heard bad things about the Spanish teacher so I desperately tried to get into the French class. It didn’t work, so off to Senora Armstrong’s class I went. I got along quite well with her, though she always dogged me about my terrible accent. And to be honest with you, at the time, I had no idea what an accent was.
We love being in Mexico and are quite fond of the people, the food, and the culture. Each day is sure to bring a new adventure. The language barrier is tough and we have to get creative in our communications. I find myself doing a lot of sign language, which is really me waving my arms around looking like a retarded monkey. One day we needed a bit of rope to tie up the dog we’re babysitting. Rachel asked one of the ranch hands for what she thought was a piece of rope for the dog. She was given a confused look and taken over to a pile of rags. Later we figured out that she had been asking for some clothes for the dog. Ropa = clothes. And simple things like the word, “de” can change so much. We were borrowing a battery for our van and I kept asking Mario, “Donde la bateria?” Mario kept just pointing at the battery with a confused look on his face. I was trying to ask, “Where did this battery come from?” What I kept asking was, “Where is the battery?” Rachel came out and said, “Mario, de donde la bateria?” and it all became clear.
So the learning continues. As you can see, we have a long way to go. One nice part about the Spanish language is that unlike English, the vowels always sound the same. A, E, I, O, U always sounds like Ah, Eh, E, O, Ooh. Try reading some of these words with that rule in mind and you’ll find a bit of a Spanish accent already coming out. I wish Senora Armstrong would have taught me that. Or, I wish I would have paid more attention when she was teaching. But come on, “When will we ever use this in the real world, Senora Armstrong?”
We’ve had some really hot days with the Farenheit getting above 104…Ouch! But overall, the weather seems to be really temperate here with cool mornings, hot afternoons, and warm evenings. It’s all part of getting use to being in the tropics. Also, living with a wide array of lizards, spiders, and other insects is a huge change for our family. Last night when I went to shut the front door after getting the van unloaded, I saw just the curl of a rigid black tail creeping under the door into the house. I shut the door and to my surprise was met by a six inch scorpion staring maliciously back at me. Yuck! Those things are straight from the pit of hell. I quickly grabbed my knife, took a deep breath and plunged the blade into its mid-section. I’m always amazed at how long something can live with half its guts spilled out on the floor. One time, back in the States, we saw one of those, “Man vs. Wild” shows where he ripped the stinger off a scorpion and put the rest in his mouth. Let me tell you, that won’t be happening with us any time soon.
We all continue to walk in divine health and are grateful to currently be on a ranch where they have their own water wells. The water tastes a bit like potatoes, but it makes such a difference simply having clean water! Thank you all for your prayers and your financial support. It’s always so nice to know that we’re not in this alone.
I find myself reviewing and desperately grasping every Spanish lesson I can remember from the recesses of my high school days. I sure am glad I couldn’t work French into my schedule…else we may be in France right now, and you all know how I feel about that. There are two things I can’t stand: people that our intolerant of other people’s cultures…and the French.

Up And Running Again!

We live a life of blessing and miracles. It took us a long time to get to a place in our lives where we could say, “Have it all Lord, do whatever you need to, whatever you want to with us.” But once we did, we have found more and more that He takes good care of what is His and what belongs to Him.
Sorry we have not been in touch for so long. The “Miracle Mobile” has been out of commission for about a week. When we first got our sweet ride, I heard a slight rattle in the engine. The noise increased and we would hear it off and on throughout our trek down here. The Lord kept assuring me that it would get us to Mexico just fine. And it did!
You should read the post below that I wrote back on the 11th before going any further. I meant to drive into town later that day to post it, but apparently, the AC Compression Unit is quite an important part of the engine.
We couldn’t have landed in a better place in Mexico to start our adventure if we tried. This ranch, Rancho Del Reyo, is truly a magnificent place. When you drive up to the main casa, you are greeted by a giant white cross planted in the ground. They tell me it was the first thing they built when they moved here. Good ol’ Don Smith is something else. He’s in his late 70’s now with white hair and crystal blue eyes, yet someone has not told him he’s supposed to slow down and relax yet. He’s great fun to talk with and has so many wonderful stories to tell. He’s always telling us that this is the Lord’s land and that the Lord just lets him stay here. He also suggested that they may have been down here this whole time simply for us to have a place for us to land when we got here.
All his workers seem to be happy to come to work. There’s a real atmosphere of peace and contentment about the place. None of the workers speak English and they’re all quite patient with us as we learn their language.
We’re not sure how long we’ll be out here at this ranch. Maybe a few more days, maybe a few more weeks, but for now we’re trying to soak it all in. Smith and I are enjoying our times together fishing for catfish down at the pond. We’ve already caught three nice size fish. They sure were good eatin’! And the whole family loves to go down there on hot days and go for a swim. We haven’t convinced Davis to jump out of the boat yet, but we’re working on it.
Ax is eating solid food now and it’s all we can do to keep the bites coming fast enough. He’s also attempting to crawl now and his sweet smile and ever increasing laughter sure lights up our lives. Sometimes, we sit back and think about how much easier this lifestyle would be without all these little ones here, but compared to the amount of joy they bring to us, it’s totally worth it all. Children truly are a blessing from the Lord.
I got to a point where I was frustrated with the Lord for not healing our van. Sometimes, I need a reminder that His ways are not our ways and His mind and His thoughts are far above our own. After we realized the battery was not the main issue, one of the ranch hands, Mario came down to help us out. We both agreed it was too large to tow all the way into town for the needed repairs, so he in his Spanish, and I in my broken English/Spanish language, decided to try doing it ourselves. We had a lot of fun communicating together in Spanglish and the work was done quickly. We took off the compression unit and sent it into town with Senor Rafa. The next day he brought back the rebuilt unit, we installed it and the van now runs better than ever. Toward the end of the repair job I asked Mario if he and his family were Christians. It just so happens, that he is the pastor of two nearby congregations. He has a son named Jonathan that is about Smith’s age and the kids really enjoyed playing with him while we worked. So, it’s at this point that I must step back and say, sure we’ve been without a vehicle for a week. We’ve been unable to communicate with all of our friends and family and that has hurt us badly. But in the end, I made a friend, and each time the van would not start it was parked right outside our casita, and what could have cost a ton of money ended up only being about $400 pesos, which equates to about $40 dollars. Wow!
So, the adventure goes on. It’s exciting to look at pictures of our past and read journal entries and see that everything that we have ever worried about has turned out either fine or better than expected. It’s exciting to know that if we could get in a time machine and travel to the future we could look back over the next several weeks and months ahead and know that all turned out great too! So yes, it doesn’t always feel like it at the moment, but our lives truly are filled with blessing and miracles. God is good!

One Week Under Our Belts!

As of today, we have been in Mexico for a complete week. What a week this has been!! With everything that has happened, it seems like we’ve been here for at least a month. Though when I try to communicate in Spanish it seems like we’ve only been here a day. And when we think about our friends and my family back home, it feels like 4 ½ months.
Everything here takes longer. The first 10 miles of our trip into town takes about 50 minutes! Let that sink in a little bit. That’s 50 minutes of slow going-bumping-braking-watching for livestock-yelling at the kids to sit down-dusty-fun! The next 10 miles are smoother on the paved highway, yet still exciting, as we learn to deal with the Mexican speeders passing us, and the dreadfully slow-drivers that we have to pass, all while watching for vehicles come at us from the opposite direction. Yikes! So, the trip into town is an event that takes time and planning, especially since you have to plan not to be on the road after dark.
Since our last post, the “Miracle Mobile” has been sitting outside our casita not starting. Somehow, that night when we returned from town, we left something on and drained the battery. Sadness. The next morning I got up and learned an important lesson. Don’t ever wave down the first Mexican tractor driver you see and elicit a jump. He quickly took the small battery out of his tractor, hooked the jumper cables up to it and to our van, and the van wouldn’t start. He then took our battery out and replaced it with his too-small battery. The van started for a moment, coughed a little bit, and then died. Long story short, after a couple days and many different opinions, I convinced one of the ranch hands named, Senor Rafa, to go borrow a bigger battery and try it before he took any parts off, which he wanted to do. The bigger battery worked. He took our original battery into town, had it properly recharged, and then the “Miracle Mobile” rode again. The AC Compression unit has been making funny noises since we started this trip. Does anyone out there know how important that is?
One of the struggles we face here is “Gringo Prices.” They see the color of our skin, equate that with wealth, and charge us out the wazoo. Not fun. However, after Smith, Zaisy, and I went fishing last night, we drove into one of the small villages and went to a small shop for some supplies. We bought 30 eggs, bananas, a bag of tomatoes, 3 boxes of milk, a big chunk of fresh cheese, 5 suckers shaped like corn, and 2 pieces of gum for only $113 pesos. That’s something like $11 dollars. I was pleased.
The ranch where we are currently living is beautiful. It is a spread of 2500 acres owned by Don & Ginger Smith. Don is a sweet man who retired down here from Houston about 24 years ago. He reminds me a lot of my late Great Uncle Jess. Ginger is a bit younger than him and has an endless amount of energy. I asked Don how he keeps up, and he said, “By Motorcycle.” They haven’t had kids out here in quite a while and they’re always trying to spoil ours. They have orange trees and lemon trees that we love to harvest the fruit off of and make juice. I know my brother Dave would love it!
Overall, our first week here has been quite fruitful. We’ve already picked up a lot of Spanish, we’ve grown closer as a family, and Rachel has had many, many opportunities to get over her dislike of spiders, insects, and especially ticks. As a matter of fact, today Rachel was making the bed and found a dead lizard under the mattress. It was a big one, about 6 inches long. Yuck!
One last story: One day I went for a hike, and one of the ranch dogs, a black lab named Shadow, decided to tag along. I’m glad she did. We were going along enjoying our time when I looked up the trail and saw two wild boars blocking our path. Yikes! Shadow took off after them and scared one of them into the woods. The other turned on Shadow and chased her back down the path toward me. I was scared, but quickly unsheathed my knife and stood ready to defend my ground. The beast got within about 5 feet of me and decided to call it quits for the day. He probably didn’t want to fight the team of angels standing protectively over me. It turned, went back up the trail, and followed its companion into the woods. No ham sandwiches for us yet.

We love this adventure, yet feel a physical ache in hearts to be so far from everyone. We hope to be somewhere where we have more frequent communication ability soon. Keep praying for us as we say goodbye to our comfort zone every day. God is so good to us!

Love and miss you all,
Except you, Carl,
Just kidding,
The Nagels

We Made It!

Hello to all!!! We had a safe and successful border crossing on Monday, and after much searching, I finally found and Internet cafe today.
Currently, we are living on a beautiful ranch with 1000 head of cattle, about 30 horses, 10 dogs, 1.5 million ticks, and a wonderful couple from Texas, about 20 miles outside of Aldama. We are so greatful for the provision of such a wonderful place to land as our first stop in Mexico. We live in a private casita down the hill from the main casa. We had to evict several spiders when we moved in, and tick checks have become a regular part of our family routine. Other than that, I think this could possibly be paradise.
We like to come into town and hang out at the plaza de centro where the kids can play on the playground, we can mingle with the locals, and there is an ice cream shop nearby. We often don´t understand any of what the people are saying to us, but we go home and try to figure it out bit by bit. Rachel is amazing with languages and Í´m sure shell have it down soon.
So many stories to tell already, but the family is waiting out in the van so I must hurry. Our first day here found me cradling a newborn colt in my arms and carrying it to the corral. It had a rough birth and didn´t make it through the night despite our prayers. The kids are loving taking turns riding the horses and somehow I was able to go into a local parts store and dialouge enough with the manager to buy a new set of brake pads for the ¨Miracle Mobile.¨ They went on without a glitch though it did take me a while to figure out how to jack that huge machine up.
We are slowly finding our way around the land and the language and each day brings a new adventure. We can physically feel the prayer covering that we have from you all. Thank you for that! I will post pictures as soon as I can figure out this Mexican Internet.
That´s all from the front lines for now. Much love to all!

Monday is the big day!

As I watch the gecko scale the wall of this quaint bedroom, and I feel the sweat from the humidity drip down my body, I realize, "We're not in Kansas anymore Toto!" Or Colorado to be more precise.
We had a wonderful morning in San Antonio. We met Rachel's brother Matt at the Alamo and then had lunch next to the river-walk. It's so weird to see people in shorts and tank-tops here when there is a blizzard in Colorado!
For the next five hours, I held tightly to the steering wheel of our van as I navigated it through gusts of wind that were fierce enough to test the strongest resolve. We made it safely to Harlingen, TX where we met up with Grandpa Jim and had the pleasure of going to a pot-luck at his church. Good times were had by all.
Tomorrow morning we will wake up early and head across the border. We're really praying and hoping we won't have to unpack the whole van as we go across. That would be a huge pain.
We got some great pics today but the wi-fi signal I'm on is too weak to upload them. I will do it ASAP. Hopefully, I'll find an internet source somewhere nearby in Mexico and we'll be in touch soon. Hasta La Vista Baby!

A Very Sonny Saturday!

We rolled into the Dallas area late last night and stayed with Rachel's brother Sonny. We all adore Uncle Sonny and loved the time we got to spend with him. He downloaded tons of stuff for us to watch on our computer so we'll never lack for entertainment. He also took us out to eat at one of his favorite pizza joints. We all had a great time.

Then it was back to the "Miracle Mobile" for several more hours of driving. We did take one small detour to show the kids the campus of our Alma-mater CFNI (Christ For the Nations Institute). Boy, what a flood of memories! That's where Rachel and I met and fell in love and had our first son Smith.

We just made it into San Antonio and checked into a pleasant hotel. All I care about when I'm looking at hotels is, what's for breakfast? All the kids care about is, where's the pool? This place has a great breakfast which I'm looking forward to and an outdoor pool that the kids are looking forward to. Can you believe it's already hot enough to swim outdoors here?

The guy that I haggled with at the front desk is from Southern India. He couldn't believe that I had spent time close to where he is from. He taught me an important lesson: everything is negotiable...especially the price of a hotel room. I got him to knock the price down by 30% compared to the couple just ahead of me. Wow!

So...tomorrow we'll have lunch with Rachel's oldest brother Matt and hopefully have time to show the kids the River Walk and possibly the Alamo. Then we'll head down to Harlingen, TX where we will meet up with Grandpa Jim and stay the night at a bed-n-breakfast some of his friends own.

Monday, we'll make the final descent into Mexico. Wow! Is this really happening or is this another one of my dreams? Will someone please pinch me? It's all quite surreal at this point.

Prayer Points:

The continued health of the "Miracle Mobile."

Unity for Team Nagel

An Uneventful Border Crossing