Ax had a ball on his first birthday. No, really, we had a ball party. He has just a handful of words in his repitoire, but his favorite is: ball. So we showered him with balloons and bubbles and a green and blue ball for his birthday. It was a ball of fun.

Gooooooooooal!

The night before last, I played in my first soccer game since 6th grade. A bunch of us guys here on the base decided to put together a team to compete in one of the local leagues. About the only rule I remebered was that you can't touch the ball with your hands.

The Mexican players that we played against obviously had been playing since birth, maybe even came out of the womb with cleats on, and quite possibly had always be on the same team with eachother. They wove the ball in and out of us and made us look like we were standing still. Ouch!

Long story short...we got our butts kicked! The highlight for me, however, came early in second half of the game. I took a pass from our team captain and found myself in open field with nothing between me and the goalie. After a few dribbles to get the ball under control, I took a swing and scored my first goal EVER!!! Our bench erupted with joy and you would have thought that we just won the World Cup. I was the hero of night and all day yesterday. It felt great!

Over the next 7 months of Missionary Training School I will be reading at least 60 books. I just added a new gadget on the right bar of our blog to highlight one of the books I'm reading each week. You can read along if you like and see a glimpse of what we're learning. This week is "Death to Self" week. We're having our worlds turned upside down as we study "Me centered" theology vs. "God centered" theology. My favorite quote from the Piper book I just finished is, "God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him." To think that everything exists to glorify God and not me. What a concept. To God be ALL the glory!

Week In Review!

We made it back to Tlaxiaco just in time to attend our first day of Missionary Training School…which I will often refer to as MTS. What an amazing week it has been! Each day began with a 6:30 time of prayer for the nations. After that, all the families and single students got together at 8:00 for a time of praise and worship. 9:30-1:30 found me in class studying un-reached people groups of the world and being inspired as we discussed some of the amazing books that we have been reading. On that note, if you have never read, “Unveiled At Last” by Bob Sjogren, you must! If you have ever questioned why we’re doing what we’re doing, this book will answer all of your questions. At 1:30 we all get together for a communal lunch and then the real fun begins. They call it, “Worship”, but really it is chores and my job is to help sweep out and mop the lower level of the base each day. Good times!
The first day of class, one of the two pigs here on the base had to be put down due to injuries. Four of our Mexican neighbors came over with their tools of the trade and we all got to witness our first pig slaughter. It was pretty gruesome and I don’t recommend it to those with a weak stomach. For the next several days we all ate pork ‘til it was coming out our nose. It was good.

As we get to know the five other families and 9 single students here on the base, the thing I’m most amazed at is the quality of people the Lord has brought down here. These are not the rejects of society or people who don’t have anything else to do with their lives. These are people that would be successful at whatever they set their hand to. After the seven month training program, two of the girls will be going on to medical school. We have experts in construction, computer programming, accounting, and much, much more. Amazing people! People who have given up all to follow the Lord’s command to “Go”! It’s a pleasure to serve with each of them.
Sunday night we all got together for a time called “Upper Room” based on 1 Corinthians 14:26. “How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.” No one was in charge. No one was the leader. We each had a chance to share whatever the Lord was leading us to share. It was an amazing time and I look forward to next Sunday night. That’s the kind of church I’m talking about!
At this point, we’ve decided to home school the kids for a bit more. Rachel had her hands full this week as she tried to unpack, decorate our little concrete quarters, and teach the kids. Please keep her in your prayers.
Our little Ax-man turned 1 on Friday. He’s such a joy to our lives and it’s been so much fun to watch him take his first steps these last few weeks. He’s in love with balls, balloons, and brooms. All of our kids now have odd numbers for their ages. 9, 7, 3, and 1. I guess it’s just an odd year!
More exciting adventure to come!

And We're Back!

Gas money to drive over 2,000 miles in three days- $3,500 pesos

Clorex wipes to clean up all the puke and poop along the way- $24 pesos

Two nights in “interesting” motels along the way- $730 pesos

Being legal once again in the country of our choice…priceless!

Ps. Unlike other trips through Mexico, we were not harassed or even pulled over once by any of the authorities along the way. Amazing!

Our Crazy Life

Three sleepy guys after a long day of moving.

*Editors note: This particular post is not meant to elicit ooey-gooey, feel-good emotions. If you feel any stress about our current life situation, please discontinue reading this post and check back in on Sunday. Love you.

Life in general can be interesting…life on the mission field is down right crazy at times! I screwed up on my math and the number of days we had left on our 180 day visas. I spent all day Monday filling out a huge stack of paper work and yesterday we drove to Oaxaca City to get them renewed. Things were going pretty well until the immigration official realized our visas were 2 days expired. At that point he stopped rifling through our paperwork, looked up at me and said, “You must leave our country. You can take an airplane, an auto bus, or drive…but you must leave.”
I spent 10-15 minutes pleading with him and asking him if there was anything else we could do. I told him we would pay any fine, or do anything, but he just kept telling me the only thing we could do was leave.
At first I took it pretty well. But over the course of the 3 hour drive back to Tlaxiaco, the realization, and the gravity of the situation began to settle over me. Have you ever been punched in the stomach when you weren’t expecting it? It doesn’t feel good!
Long story short…tomorrow morning we will make a trek up to the border to simply renew our visas. We hope to make it to Harlingen, TX by Friday around noon, do some shopping at Walmart, and then be back here to Tlaxiaco by Saturday night. Please pray for us. We are just now getting to a point where we feel fully recovered from our previous trip and are not too excited about this one. Please pray for safety on the roads, grace for Rachel, me, and the kids over the long hours, and a lack of harassment by all the government officials along the way.