June 14th AM entry
Got up at 5:30 am to get ready for the first trip to set up the clinic. We loaded up in vans and headed for Don Eduardo's restaraunt for an outstanding breakfast. We had eggs, chilquiles, black beans, and hot cakes with maple syrup(Mexicans do outstanding hot cakes, and they are very popular here). There was also the heavy clotted cream and salsa-the green was like fire, but the red was more my cup of tea. Lots of hot coffee and plenty of orange juice.
Steve Muscarella did the devotion and talked about how many people perish without getting a chance to understand the gospel. We then prayed and dismissed with 3 groups going to three different locations.
I rode with Ron Walicki, who is the senior missionary there and has been our friend for sometime. We had an excellent talk and I learned a lot of things about ministering in Mexico. It is true that relationships play a larger part in evangelism, and people may be convinced of the gospel easy enough but true conversion and understanding takes a little longer than it seems to in the United States. Once we turned off the highway, were on a rocky dirt road that seemed to go on forever. Crops and cattle and vaqueros(Mexican Cowboys) greeted us with a nod. I did think the cowboys seemed a little stand-offish compared to other parts of Mexico, but I did not think about that until later on in the day.
Finally arriving at the clinic in Emborranco,Tamaulipas , we began to set up. People were starting to gather around, and I met the pastor Hermano Pompoyo. We soon found out that we did not have the medical instruments to do anything, no cleanings, no fillings, nothing-they were in another trailer back in a van in Tampico-more than an hour and a half away from here, it was already near noon when we realized this and there was no way we could make it back in time to do any work. It was heart breaking, but we had to close up the clinic and tell them we would be back in the morning.
Before we left, the pastor insisted we come to his house because they had already prepared the meal for the day. His house is larger than most people's in town, had mangos and key lime trees along with a small plum like fruit called Cidallias that tasted like a cross between a mango and a tomato-very good. The kitchen was a shack outside of the house with a wood stove for all of the cooking.
His wife made us fresh fried fish that tasted like Tilappia with rice beans and a wonderful home made salsa that was very subtle. with fresh corn tortillas. She was a chubby women with long brown hair and a silver tooth, even though she is Mexican, her way and manner were the same as many Assembly of God pastor's wives I have met. "Full-Gospel" culture seems to translate very easily...
After lunch I rode back with Ron in his GMC and the others piled into the van and we started back to the hotel in Tampico. As we rounded a corner I could see two olive drab hummers in the distance-it was the Mexican Army, and probabally about twenty men with .30 caliber HK assault rifles waved us to pull over.
They all appeared about 18-20 years old, except for the commanding officer who looked about my age or older. Ron and I were told to get out of the vehicle and they searched our stuff. Our van arrived shortly after and they stopped them also. I wasn't really scared, I had been through these things before-besides we had nothing with us that was contraband. Finally , the dentist Maria spoke to the officer in charge and he believed her.
Ron told me later that this was not a high crime area and he rarely had seen them out there. Maria told me she was sure someone had called them about us specifically because a large group of gringos in nice vehicles in a remote area is very suspicious. I wondered now if the cowboys may have had a cellphone in their saddlebags...
Next Mexico Entry: Taxis, Zapatos Chulos y Tito Puente
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