Pitorreal, Mexico • July 2007

We have arrived back to Creel at the edge of Copper Canyon after a week in Pitorreal. We had a mission team of 4 men and 8 women. We did construction on the new larger church that will be used starting August 4th. We built pews, hung sheet rock on the ceiling and closed in the roof gables. We also had Mission Bible School at four different locations.

We were working mostly with the Tarahumara Indian people and a few Mexicans. The children were beautiful, but oh so poor. We noticed that their shoes were soles crafted from car tires with homemade strings for laces. Some of the people we were serving live in caves in the side of the canyon! Sometimes you had to wait until later to cry over the circumstances. The MBS was music, puppets, crafts, Bible stories, crafts, snacks, and a take-home gift. We gave extra food to those that seemed hungry. Everyone would walk from great distances to get to us. The mothers would come and sit outside and weave baskets that they sell. The Tarahumara people are very quiet and do not look at you when you first meet them. When you turn away they are always looking at you. The smiles and eye contact would come after several days of getting to know us. We all wore name tags to help them. Some of the older children and parents have become believers. We trust we planted clear Bible stories of God´s love and care for each one of them.

We left lots of supplies and sports equipment for them. The mission church pastor Obed, and his wife, were of great help and guidance to us. The other couple are the Parsons from Claremore who helped connect us to this mission. They live in Pitorreal from March until October each year as they have for the last ten years. They show a level of Christian commitment that is not seen often. They are retired and just volunteer. We ate all our meals at the Parsons home. It was all very good.

What is Pitorreal like? It is a community of about 200 with horses and cows roaming the streets. It would rain every afternoon and stay cool at night at 7600 feet. The Copper Canyon train comes thru the middle of town in a horse shoe turn as it climbs to the west. Pitorreal is in a pine forest and looks a lot like around Durango, Colorado. The mission church has no power so Linda played on a battery powered keyboard. She could hardly see the keys when it got dark outside with thunderstorms. The men and women sit separate in the worship service. It is no big deal to have dogs sleeping under the pews. When I was leading our group in singing to the church members I could see a pig moving by the open doors! The pastor preaches in Spanish and a Tarahumara translates in into their language for those that don't understand Spanish.

We saw the rest of the team off this evening from Creel to Chihuahua on the train. They will fly to Tulsa tomorrow. We will go west on the train on Saturday to El Fuerte. Thank you for your prayers as we believe we made a small impact.
We had no notable injuries and stayed mostly well.

Jennifer you would be proud of me as I organized a soccer game in a apple orchard with the kids. I had to keep score and referee the games. They just love soccer!!

Linda can tell about cleaning out many outhouses one day!

Much more to tell all of you later, Rob and Linda