Mexicali Day 3

Buenos Noches...

We have lived in some pretty modest places before. I remember our house in LaRonge, SK. It had one big kitchen/ living room /dining room, two bedrooms and a bathroom all in about 600Sq. feet. We had no kids then- only a homely little Basset hound dog. She should have been called a heat hound because every time the little propane heater came on and blew out hot air in the living room to heat the whole place, the dog would snuggle up right next to the heater and suck up every last bit of available heat. We almost needed to shoo our glowing dog from room to room to heat the rest of the house.

Here in Ejido Sinaloa, the pastor of the local church lives in a place that is basically Two 200Sq foot rooms attached with a common brick wall. He needs to go out his living room/ family bedroom front door and go in the kitcehn front door to get to the kitchen / bathroom. His bathroom has an old toilet and a small shower stall, but no sink. They wash their hands in the kitchen sink.

A group of 4 guys from maryland have decided to build him a new place on the church property. After 2 days they have the floor plumbing in,.the concrete floor formed and poured and most of the trussess made. They hope to have it done tomorrow or Saturday at the latest and the pastor, his wife and kids wil have a well bult, functional 700Sq (or so) foot house. It's amazing what 4 or 5 thousand bucks can do here.

I'm hearing a bunch of loud noises and I'm told that it's either gunshots or fireworks. Apparantly during the new years ( and we're coming up to it) week they'll do both - as well as small sticks of dynamite... Interesting. Praise God for concrete walls!

We went to a village called Quintana Roo. At the church building we had 25 or so small kids, about 7 ladies and 15 or so older boys and teens / young adults paling "futball". I met a little boy called Justin ( pronounced Hoo-Steen) today. Justin had a frisbee. He motioned to me several times that he wanted to throw it to me, but was afraid, I think, that I wouldn't throw it back. Sometime that day- he had lost his frisbee to someone else and was absolutely not willing to chance it getting taken again. I asked him time and time again to play with me and time and time again- he would get up- walk a few feet away and get ready to throw- but instead clutch his frisbee and go sit back down. He was so afraid of losing it, he wouldn't join in any games with the other kids.

And I began to think about how that is like me sometimes. I have this life that Christ has given me, yet sometimes I'm so afraid of what may happen to it- I clutch it to myself and eventually end up missing out on everything.

Jesus said something about this in Matthew 16

²⁴Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ²⁵For whoever wants to save his life^[a] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. ²⁶What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

I'm hoping I can learn to let go of my frisbee and throw it into the wind... maybe it'll get thrown into a tree and hit a chicken ( yes the neibourhood chickens fly well enough to roost in the trees- I have pictures!). Maybe it'll come back to me and I'll throw it again... and maybe It'll get thrown to someone else and I'll lose it... But at least I can say that it was used for it's purpose.

Love to you all- Todo Te amo,

Mike and Sharlene McDonald and boys.