Chrismas traditions

One of the traditions in the Anderson family is to celebrate Santa Lucia Day on December 13th. It's part of their Swedish background. Traditionally the oldest girl dresses in a white robe with red sash and a crown of candles and serves coffee and treats to the rest of the family in bed. This year Sarah was introduced to the tradition by getting to be Santa Lucia. Later that morning we all gathered around the table for some Kringla- a Swedish pastry served on Santa Lucia Day.

Medical Clinic

This weekend we made the 12-hour trek to the neighboring state in Mexico to participate in a medical outreach. We were accompanying around 60 others from various parts of Mexico and Spain. The outreach took place in one of the poorest areas of Mexico, as well as one of the most spiritually needy. The village was about 4 hours away from the nearest town, on roads that more closely resemble a dry river bed. In addition to medical and dental consults the group did clowns and sports for the kids, haircuts, provided meals, provided transportation to/from the ‘local’ villages (up to 3 hours away), showed the Jesus video, and gave a small bag of imperishable foods and clothing/ diapers to each family.

Almost everyone who came spoke the local dialect and little to no Spanish (much less English!). We had some believers from the larger town come along to interpret. After the first day of the clinic they invited us down to the river to bathe, which we gladly did after being in the heat all day. We thought it a bit interesting that it was only our team and the local interpreters who decided to go. Maybe we’re fitting in to the culture more than we realize :)

One woman brought her 8-year-old daughter to the clinic with parasites and a fever of 101. She asked if she could have medicine for her other children at home. The doctor said he needed to be able to see them to know what to give and asked why she didn't bring them along. She replied that it was a 3 hour walk (one-way) and she could not carry them that far as they were sick and couldn't make the journey. We gave her the medicine!

Another family brought their 6-month-old daughter who was blind from congenital cataracts. With a simple operation, she would be able to see, but the family would have to travel 4 hours to the nearest hospital to have it done, and it didn’t seem that they were too inclined to do so.

One family came with their 4 children and asked the doctor for some form of birth control. The doctor looked at their 4 kids and said that would probably be good since they have so many children. They responded, “Oh, we left 4 more at home!”

One the way there we got to meet a family who is translating the Bible into the dialect of these people. Hopefully soon they will be able to hear the Word of God in their own language. Please pray for the Kingdom of God to continue advancing into the areas of darkness in southern Mexico.

Enjoy some pics from the weekend!

Here's the town nestled in the mountains. There were many little villages like this along the way.

This is what these vehicles were made for!

This was a typical sight

Here's the town we did the clinics in

On the job IV training! Got it in 1st try!

Travels

Tomorrow we head out to do a medical outreach in the neighboring state to the west. It is considered to be the poorest area in all of Mexico as well as one of the spiritually least-reached areas. It will be a long drive there- 2 full days, of which the last 35 miles drops about 6,000 feet in elevation and takes about 5 hours. We should arrive to the village late Friday night, have clinics Saturday and Sunday, then return home late Monday night or Tuesday. Please join us in prayer that God would reveal His power and salvation to the people of this remote village.

Chicken!!!

Last Friday Rhonda decided to kill her 2 roosters that wake her up at 3am (I thought roosters were supposed to wait until the sunrise!) and make a meal for her neighbors. Living overseas, I decided that knowing how to kill and clean a chicken is probably a good skill to know, so I offered to come and help. Susana killed the first one to show us how it was done then handed the knife to me. (Rhonda conveniently disappeared during this time and stood as far away as possible to still take pictures.)

Here’s the step by step process!

Always a bit of a challenge to catch them, even in a small cage!

Susana, the master, teaching us how it's done

This one's next!

My turn. I'm going to be brave!

Maybe not!

Ok, if the 11-year-old can do it, so can I!

Don't mind the blood on your hands!

Mission accomplished!

The chicken was some of the best we’ve had down here, by the way!

Medical Outreach

The last 3 days we have spent in 3 different villages in the surrounding area doing medical outreaches. An ophthalmologist came down, so we were able to not only provide for basic health needs, but also do eye exams and supply glasses for those who needed them. We saw more than 200 patients in the 3 days, starting around 9 or 10 AM and going until 6 or later in the evening.

Doing medical clinics in the villages always has its special challenges. First of all, many of the people speak an indigenous language, so they would have a son or daughter translate into Spanish, which we would then translate into English for the eye doctor or nurse practitioner. I had one older woman who had her 8-year-old granddaughter translating for her. I had to hope that everything was getting communicated correctly and that the woman really understood how to take her medications, as I could not directly communicate with her.

Apart from the language differences, there are also the cultural beliefs that have to be deciphered. Here are some examples:
• “I make tortillas a lot. One time my arm was really hot from making tortillas and I put my hand in cold water. Now I have pain in my arm all the time.”
• “I have fear a lot. When I have fear, I feel a ball rise in my chest and my head hurts.”
• “I get angry and my stomach burns.”

Many of the people also have chronic problems as a result of their lifestyles. Most of the women complain of back and shoulder pain. It’s not hard to imagine why when they carry large baskets of firewood down from the mountain on their backs. They also have eye problems, as most still cook over an open fire in little wood shacks where the smoke billows around them for hours at a time. It’s frustrating to give them a small bag of Tylenol or Ibuprofen for the pain, knowing that their lifestyle isn’t likely to change and when the medicine is gone they will be right back to where they started from. We did teach them some exercises and stretches to do as well as how to make a heat pack for their sore muscles, which we hope they will put into practice.

One of the biggest blessings for a lot of the women was our massage therapist that came along the last two days. For many women, it was probably the first massage they had ever received, and they were so grateful for the 20 minutes of relaxation and enjoyment. Word spread quickly, and many came just for a massage.

We hope to be going to various villages two days a week for clinics and hopefully will come up with some answers to these various cultural challenges!

Spiritual Mapping

An attempt to see our communities the way God sees them; that is the definition of spiritual mapping provided by the book Breaking Strongholds in Your City, the resource that has most influenced my view on the subject.

The technique seeks to reveal the spiritual forces at work in a community so that they can be accurately addressed in prayer. Ephesians 5:11 tells us to expose the deeds of darkness. Spiritual mapping uses spiritual discernment and the observation of historical and geographical factors (such as the location of centers of occult activity in an area) to reveal the invisible forces that are interacting with our visible world. Endemic sins, such as the communal practice of idolatry, can give demonic forces greater power to keep a people blind to the truth, thus challenging the spread of the Gospel. Spiritual mapping, seeks to discern these factors so that they can be confessed and repented of (see Daniel 9:16-21 for an example of one man interceding in this way for a whole people) and so that the powers behind them can be bound so that God’s work can advance unhindered.

2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” The ultimate goal of this kind of work is that God would make “his light shine in (their) hearts to give (them) the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

Why do we feel this will be helpful in our area? Nearly all of the villages around us have annual festivals in which they rededicate themselves and their land to the spiritual power which they perceive as being over their region. This, and similar practices, as mentioned above, darken the veil that Satan is using to deceive these people. By better understanding the working of such evil forces, we plan to cut their power at the root through intercessory prayer for our area and thus “demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

The Newest Addition to the Family

Nope, not ours! Sarah just got to meet little Wesley James Cramer today, our nephew (the first son of David and Ann). He's precious!

Medical Team Strategy

We’ve had several meetings this past week to plan out our ongoing medical ministry. We’re working with the Director of Health in town to contact villages that have no medical care and set up two days a week to go visit and provide basic health care. Ideally, we would like to find people in the villages who have diseases such as diabetes and return once a month to do blood sugar checks, diet teaching, etc. We feel this will give us a more measurable goal and a chance to impact individual lives, rather than just do blitz clinics every once in a while. Diabetes runs rampant in Mexico, and often times is undetected or very uncontrolled. It was not uncommon for us to have people with a fasting blood sugar in the 400s or higher at the clinics this summer. Many of the more isolated villages don’t have any doctors present, nor do nurses come and visit, as they do in some of the villages closer to town. By us going and visiting the villages, this will allow us to provide a much needed service to the communities, as well as hopefully open doors for the Gospel to enter.

We still plan to do large scale outreaches several times a year when doctors come down from the States, but this plan will be more of our day-to-day ministry. The team will consist of us, Rhonda (RN), Joni (RN), and JoLynne (NP) for now, then will scale back to just us and Rhonda in April. We would also love to take some local believers along with us, whom we can train to check blood sugars and do the teaching, so that they could continue doing visits even after we leave someday.

Mole, Mole, Mole

No, that’s not the little animal that ruins people’s yards- it’s the sauce put on meat at any big event in Mexico. Last week was the going away party for Grant and Jenn, and in typical Mexican fashion, we had mole negro (black mole). I was in charge of getting all the ingredients for the 17 lbs. of sauce (that’s only counting the chilies).

So here’s the recipe: (Don’t try this at home!!!)

17 lbs. chilies anchos

2 lbs. chilies huajillos

9 lbs. sesame seeds

9 lbs. pumpkin seeds

9 lbs. peanuts

9 lbs. raisins

9 lbs. almonds

9 lbs. apples

2 lbs. garlic

22 lbs. onion

35 lbs. banana

13 lbs. chocolate

3.5 lbs. chorizo sausage

4 gallons oil

Garlic, cinnamon, oregano, cloves, salt, and pepper to taste

It took an entire day to fry and finely grind all of the ingredients then stir them together in a huge pot over an open fire to make a thick paste. The day of the party we boiled the chicken and added the broth as well to make the sauce. It was a lot of work, but it was delicious!

Cooking over a fire is the most common way for women to cook in Mexico and the ONLY acceptable way to make mole!

A lesson on finding people in Mexico

The last two days, Rhonda and I (Sarah) went on a ‘treasure hunt’ looking for a couple people from the clinic this summer to follow up with. Of the five names, only one had an address with an actual house number. The others had either the neighborhood and street names, or just the neighborhood. So we set out, determined to find at least one of the women. We decided to start easy- the one that had a number. Unfortunately, having the house number does not guarantee that all the houses along the street have numbers on them. We followed the advice of our leader and got as close as we could, then just started asking people. We asked for #39 in a salon (#33) and the lady pointed us up the hill. As we crossed the street, we came across #31. It seemed to us that we were going in the wrong direction. We asked in a tortilla shop and none of them seemed to even know what their address there was. So, we took an educated guess and went back past the salon and down the hill. As we got closer, we asked a few more people for the woman by name and were able to locate the house. A young girl answered the door and said the woman was her aunt, but she was at work and wouldn’t be home until after 6. At least we found the house!

Feeling a little encouraged, we tried the next name on our list. This time it wasn’t quite as easy. We found the neighborhood and street fairly quickly and felt pretty hopeful as there were only about a dozen houses on the street. The address didn’t have a number, so we went to the houses without numbers first. At the first one, a small girl answered and when we asked for Maria, looked perplexed and said there was no Maria there. We went two doors down and a middle-aged teacher answered the door. She ended up being our teacher for the next hour as she went from house to house asking for Maria. Everyone would stop and think for a moment then say, “Who could that be?” We were ready to give up and assume she had just been renting on the street and now had moved out. However, our teacher wasn’t as easily dissuaded. From house, to store, to another house, getting farther and farther from the street we had named, she led us along asking everyone who knows anyone where this house may be. Finally she said, “Last stop.” The woman there didn’t know Maria, but knew a family with her last name. We went there and the man said his wife’s last name was what we were looking for, but her name wasn’t Maria. However, she had gone to the ‘clinic of the foreigners’ this summer, so maybe it was her. We went back the next day, but she still wasn’t home. Her daughter also thought that her mom had gone to the clinic, so we’re hoping soon to find Maria.

We have yet to look for the other three women.

Lesson learned: Ask, ask, ask, and don’t take ‘no’ for an answer.

Photo tour of our month in the States

Here's a brief look at what the last 4 weeks looked like for us as we traveled from our home in Mexico to Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and finally California. It has been a great time of visiting friends and family and making new friends as well. Hopefully you'll be able to take the tour at a much slower pace than we did!

Enjoy!

Roadtrip!!! Off to Illinois to visit Kurt and Nellie!

We love you, Grandma!

Sarah's first trip to Pella, Iowa. Love the Dutch letters!

Life on the farm with Uncle Daniel, Aunt Mary, and Max!

A trip to Indiana is never complete without a bonfire at the Saunders'

Ready to tackle Tower Hill?

We missed you Rachel!

Nick's first tea at Rachel's

Nice pinky

Happy birthday, Lance!

And Brooke, too!

The master chef... great guacamole...and apron

Fiesta at the Lewis's

Chillin' on the sailboat

Which flavor will you choose?

Visit from Karen!

Last week, our dear friend, Karen, visited us, so we decided to take advantage of the warm California weather and Nick's Dad's sailboat and go sailing. It quickly became an adventure when the boat ramp's thick layer of scum caused the van to slide backward instead of drive forward. Marius waded through the green water to unhook the boat trailer, hoping that would lighten the load enough for the van to pull out. Nope. So Nick was stuck in the van with his foot on the brake (the e-brake wouldn't hold it in place either) while his Mom called AAA to come tow him out. We were glad when they arrived before the van ended up in the bottom of the lake! The sailing was great, however, and we left with some fun memories.

Keep your foot on the brake, Nick!

Thanks AAA!

Marius is quite the little sailor!

That night, we ended Karen's visit with a trip to Brock's, a famous homemade ice cream parlor, an essential part of any visit to YC! Happy Birthday, Karen!

Graduation

June is graduation time, and this year Sarah had the honor of being asked to accompany Belen (Gerardo and Susana's youngest daughter) at her kindergarten graduation. First they have a cultural presentation where all of the kids dress in costumes and perform traditional Mexican dances. There's also a flag ceremony, several speeches, then the actual graduation ceremony. Here's a few pictures of the festivities:

Of course no celebration is complete without cake!