Mexico Team Visit - February 2010

MEXICO! I thank God that I was able to minister with Woody as we visited our teams in Toluca, Tenancingo and Queretaro, Mexico. We traveled to Mexico City and enjoyed a day just to ourselves, staying in the center of the city the first night. Despite the rain and cold, we really enjoyed walking through the huge Chapultepec Forest located right in the center of the city - about a mile from our hotel.

The next morning we took a bus south to the city of Toluca where we met with Miguel and Vicky. The Cadenas are serving as coaches for national church leaders. From there, we caught a ride with Matthew Reed to the city of Tenancingo where we stayed with our team leaders, Chris and Kathy Gouzoules. Over the next two days we spent time with the Reeds, the Petersons, and the Gouzoules family. We were also privileged to speak at the "graduation ceremony" for about twenty couples who had participated in a marriage enrichment course.

As an aside, it was FREEZING COLD and VERY RAINY our first four days in Mexico. There was widespread flooding and we were both chilled to the bone most of the time due to an unusual cold front. There is no heating in the homes, and each night it got down to almost freezing. Daytime highs were in the 50's. We were thankful for three thick, heavy blankets on our bed!

After a good visit in Tenancingo, we headed north by bus again, passing through flooding in the capital city. 29 deaths were reported associated with the weather there.

In the city of Queretaro we stayed with Martin and Mayte Macedo, the team leaders. It was a privilege to spend time with their family in their home for three days while we met individually with Justin and Lluvia Hoste, Jean Paul and Jessica Uribe, and Phil Jones and his fiance/wife Sandy. Woody was privileged to perform the wedding ceremony for Phil and Sandy. I helped with program details and translation for Phil's family who came from Australia for the wedding. Mexico is rich with tradition, and it was fun to be in the midst of that cultural event. (It was especially fun to see how in love Phil and Sandy were and to see them enjoying the celebration!)