June 17-18 Arrival

June 17-18

Arrival and first morning.  We were met at the airport by Tom and Wendy our hosts from Forward Edge.  Only pastor Thom (me) was stopped at customs and his bags dismantled and examined.  Nothing like having your underwear on display for everyone to see, but more embarrassing was the large suitcase of children’s toys and prizes that was spilled out.  The customs lady wanted to know why I was so interested in children

Tom and Wendy are wonderful hosts and cater to our every need preparing food and sharing with us all the customs and cultural issues we will face.  They are down to earth and humble people which I am convinced is either a characteristic of all good missionaries or is a trait learned after years on the field.  Either way it makes for a good example for our students and staff. 

After an evening of listening to whistling frogs (they really whistle) we drifted off to a well deserved rest after a long day of travel.

Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs mixed with salsa and some fruit that is indigenous.  There are bugs here but not many in the heat of the day.  Cockroaches abound but are kept away from food stores and mostly outside the house.  Dogs run wild and are not considered pets.  Our apartment complex has a wonderful view of the town (they call it a colonia).  Its cloudy and hot here.  A hurricane hit about 200 miles south with significant damage to the coast city of Puerto Escondido the day before we arrived.  This means warm rains for us for the next day or two at least.

On the up side- A dear roommate of mine during seminary, Jeff Simons,  is a missionary in Oaxaca working with free market coffee growers.  I asked Tom and Wendy if they knew him.  They were surprised and pointed two houses away and said his family lived there.  Unfortunately they are in the states right now and not here, what a small world we minister in.