Welcome to the adventure

Driving through the beautiful mountains.

Welcome sign

Rachel and our friend Pam

Several of the mission students and interns having breakfast.

Me, Ax, and our friend Tucker

I was full of mixed emotions as we drove into Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca. After hours, days, months of travel, had we really made it? How would Rachel and the kids respond…would they like it?
The drive from Puebla down into the state of Oaxaca was an amazing experience. We traveled on a new toll-road almost the whole way and got to cross over one of the most beautiful mountain passes in the world. My preconceptions of all of Mexico being one big, dry, desert land were shattered once again. As we drove, I had to keep reminding myself that we were indeed in Mexico.
About an hour and a half outside of Tlaxiaco, we turned off the main road and began our twisty-curvy ascent into more mountains and through numerous small towns/villages. One thing we quickly noticed was that in each place, outside of Tlaxiaco that we drove through, we were not well-received. Laughing, smiling faces quickly turned to frowns and even glares as they saw us driving through. What were we getting ourselves into?
When I visited Tlaxiaco back in November, at first I didn’t really like it. But as I got to know several of the staff and students on the GFM base, and as I walked the streets of the city and shopped in the Saturday marketplace, I quickly fell in love.
Having spent the last two months isolated from friends and family, it was so exciting and refreshing to drive up to the base and see recognizable faces. It was also quite exciting to unpack the “Miracle Mobile” one last time for quite a while. We went down to the town centro to have dinner, and one of the first things we noticed was how well we were received by the local people. Many of them were quick to smile at us and would return our greetings. It was easy to see that GFM has had a good impact and has done good works in this place over the years.
Tlaxiaco is such an interesting place. During the average week it is a city of about 15,000 people. On Saturdays it booms to about 60,000 people with many from surrounding villages coming to sell their goods. It’s a strategic place to share the message and love of Jesus and have that message quickly carried throughout the land by the indigenous people.
So the plan for now is to spend the next few months living and working among the local people as we continue to build relationships and learn how to communicate. In September we will begin our official training with GFM, which is a seven month course, and at that point we will live on the base full-time.
Please keep the prayers coming as I sense we still have many unique and great adventures ahead of us.