Mission Oaxaca - Day 3

Have you ever seen those test tracks in the commercials for fancy sports cars? The Ferraris or BMWs or other cars making their way up a curvy mountain road with the agility of a fox make it look so nice...and maybe it would have been if we were in those cars.

Today we traveled to Ixlan, Oaxaca, a town 2-hours from our base at Cristo por su Mundo and unlike the swift sports cars, we were riding in passenger vans. Rob and Jessica clung to each other in the hopes that they could keep from becoming sick as the road hugged the cliffs where we could imagine other 12-passenger vans filled with missionaries lay at the bottom.

The experience was only amplified when trucks laden with all manner of goods would pass us on double curves, the drivers with one hand on the wheel and the other holding a cigarette or cup of coffee. The minivan holding part of the Vineyard group did have to stop after the brakes began touching the floor from overheating. We let them cool, shuffled most of the passengers to other vans and away we went.

Who said missions trips were never fun?

Today the entire group of Canadians, Californians, Mexicans and Oregonians worked together to treat many many people. We don’t have an exact count, but our dentist and her assistant took the brunt impact of the work as they cleaned and pulled teeth. I won’t post the video of that – you may be eating breakfast.

While I won’t say it was a well-oiled machine, many people were treated for all kinds of conditions and thanked us profusely. I love to see their smiles, especially the older, toothless ones, and just see how big an impact you can have by giving a hug, taking a temperature and letting them see a doctor who genuinely listens to them, treats them and prays with them. It doesn’t take much to really show God’s love in very tangible ways.

We arrived home around 9:45 p.m. and tomorrow we are on the road again, this time to Juxtlahuaca, a 6-hour drive with more of the same of today. On Wednesday, we will begin clinics in various villages around that town.

Just a note, villages in Oaxaca bear no similarity to anything in the U.S. They are groups of homes built in an area along dirt back roads. While they have basic utilities, there are no grocery stores (unless you like Coca-Cola and junk food). Many of these villages predate the Oregon Trail or other substantial events in U.S. history and families will live there for generations and never leave.

More recently, young men will leave their wives and children and venture out to find work in agriculture. If they are lucky, they will make it into the United States for seasonal farm labor, especially in Oregon, which has a large number of Oaxacans living there.

As for us, we all need a good nights sleep and a shower, but hopefully will be refreshed and ready for Wednesday. Please continue to pray for our good health and that we will have a lasting impact on those around us. Please pray that we will be able to make each clinic run smoothly and that we will have all the supplies we need. (Would it be too obnoxious to as you to pray for our blood pressure machine and thermometer – these gave us some serious grief today and I almost threw them down a cliff on the way home?) I’ll let you decide.

Thanks again for your prayers and support. You are all blessings to us and your words of encouragement have been awesome.

God bless,

Sheldon