40 hours later.....we are here!

First of all, I want to thank each and everyone one of you who prayed for us as we made the forty hour drive to south-central Mexico! We felt the presence of the Lord with us each step of the way, and we felt Him strengthening us in our weakest moments. Praise Him!

Daniel sent out a short email update to let everyone know that we arrived safely, but I wanted to blog and give you all some more details of our memorable and very crazy long trip! We left from Dickson, TN at around 3pm on Tuesday. After a few hours of saying goodbye to friends in Jackson, we started on our way to Texas (we had decided to drive through the night so that Isaac would sleep.) The plan was for me to sleep the first four hours, then get up and drive while Daniel slept the next four hours. Well, that didn't work out so well and we both ended up needing to stay up all night to keep each other awake. But, praise the Lord, we did it and arrived in Dallas at Aunt Mary's house at about 8am. There we had a wonderful breakfast, saw some family, and got 2 hours of sleep! Our next stop was in Georgetown, TX (just north of Austin) to stay the night with the Fishers. We got there at around 3pm and had a good night's sleep.

At 5:00 the next morning, we were back on the road, heading south to meet up with Aaron and his family at the border town of Pharr, TX. We got there at 11am and crossed the border with no problem. We had to wait for about 2 hours in the border office to get visas and permits squared away, but it was a nice break from the car seat for Isaac! At 1:30 pm, we were on the road again. Shortly before we reached Monterrey, we were pulled over by some Mexican police with big machine guns. They asked us some questions and sent us on our way. It's nice to know that they have those guns when you know that they are on your side, but they were a little bit scary at first :) I think that they got a kick out of a bunch of Americans driving with big vans full of stuff!

We got a bit turned around just past Monterrey because of the confusing toll road system, but we finally figured out where we were supposed to go after about an hour. The mountains in this region are BEAUTIFUL! This was the point where the AC in our van stopped working, but thank God that it wasn't a few hours earlier when the temperature outside was 109F! In the mountains, with the breeze and some storm clouds, the temperature had dropped to the 70's! God is so Kind, even in these small details! I enjoyed driving for the next few hours as we passed several small houses on the plains with mountains all around. Horses, cows, and donkeys were all grazing in the median! That was definitely a new experience :) At 10pm, Daniel took over driving again and I started to fall asleep....from then on, I was practically a zombie! The physical exhaustion finally hit me, and there was virtually nothing that I could do to stay awake. Daniel would talk to Aaron on the walkie-talkie, but then the battery would die, so he would have to wake me up to help keep him awake!

Our original plan was to stop somewhere in Mexico for the night, but after the AC broke we decided to just keep driving through the night to avoid the extreme heat the next day. Let's just say that it was probably the longest trip that I have ever made in one day! By about 5am, Daniel and I were totally spent. He had been driving for 7 hours straight, and we had both been up for over 24 hours. We stopped and slept at a gas station for about an hour, and headed on again. It is truly amazing how one's body can adjust to such a demand! That hour of sleep really helped to revive us until the sun rose. Once the sun was up and we were only 2.5 hours from home, I was awake enough to drive. This was where the curvy mountain road replaced the straight toll road, so we could only go about 30mph. At about an hour from Huajuapan, we stopped for a bathroom break and instantly noticed the wheel well smoking and letting off an awful smell. All I could think was, "We made it this far, Lord! Please get us the rest of the way there!" Praise God, he did! After assessing the situation, it seemed that the mountain roads had been working the brakes really hard, so we tried to take it easy from there. At 11am on Friday, we pulled in front of Aaron's house with a hot car and squeaky brakes; we made it!!!!!

Through the whole trip, the Lord was Faithful to keep one of us awake enough to drive. When I was exhausted, Daniel was okay. When I was okay, Daniel was exhausted. It worked out pretty well! :) Isaac, also, did amazingly. There were only a few times where he was really inconsolable, but most of the way he played or slept or ate snacks and looked out the window. What a good boy! Lastly, we didn't see an accident the whole way and never got caught in a serious amount of traffic. A semi's tire blew when we were on the road to Georgetown, but it didn't harm us at all--we were far enough ahead of the section that lost the tire.

So, in short, God answers prayer! Thank you for praying :) Now is when the real labor begins. The labor for souls! Please keep praying for us as we settle in here and go through a whole range of emotions. We are eager to learn Spanish and meet people, but know that this will take some time.

We will update you again soon! Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!!

We're Going to Mexico!

Dear friends and family,

We hope that this letter finds you all doing well and loving Christ more each day! We are writing to inform you all of the privilege and responsibility that we have been given by the Lord to become missionaries for Christ in Huajuapan de Leon, Oaxaca, Mexico. Shortly after Christmas, Daniel's older brother Aaron (who is a missionary in the aforementioned city along with his wife, family, and sister-in-law) asked us to consider joining their effort to plant a church in Mexico. We were both very interested but also a bit overwhelmed by such an opportunity presenting itself so quickly. We had been praying for months for the Lord to show us where He would have us go, and as time went on and we added the idea of moving to Mexico to our radar, things really seemed to fall into place. The Lord seemed to be confirming that this was what He wanted us to do, so for three weeks (April 28th- May 18^th) we took a trip to Mexico to see what the ministry there was like and how we would fit into the picture. Our time there was such a blessing! We not only loved the culture (and the food, of course!) but we saw a great need for the true Gospel to be preached. There are very few evangelical churches in the area where Aaron and his family live, and many people only know of a works based religion that isn't Christianity at all. As we came home, we were both fairly certain that Mexico was in our future! After more prayer and thought, we decided to tell Aaron that we would join he and his family in Huajuapan. Lord willing, we will be leaving for Mexico on August 9^th. This is a huge answer to the prayers that we have prayed since we were married and even before we knew each other. God has put a desire in both of our hearts to take His Gospel to other nations who are so much less knowledgeable of the truth than our own. For so many reasons, Mexico seems to be that place for us! Although neither of us ever thought we would go to any Spanish speaking nation, much less Mexico which is right across our border (we had envisioned traipsing across the world to southeast Asia or north Africa!), God has seen fit to draw us there. Not only do we have a peace, but we have a lot of joy and excitement as we wait to take this next step. Please pray for us as we make this step of faith! Some specific things that you can be praying for are:

1. That we will learn the language quickly and that we will enjoy the process!

2. That we will acclimate quickly to the culture, bacteria, etc. (and be joyful through it all!)

3. For those whom we will meet within our first few months there; that God would open their hearts and their minds to both understand and desire the Gospel.

4. For those whom Aaron and his family already know and are ministering to; that they would also come to know Christ as Lord.

5. For protection and peace as we travel. We will be living in southern Mexico where there is very little problem with violence, but we will be traveling across the border on our trip down. Aaron has taken the trip a half dozen times and he will be with us, which is a huge blessing.

We love you all and are so thankful for your prayers!