Straight from Brother Jim!

--- On Mon, 7/20/09, Jim Lamar wrote:

Howdy all,

Or should I say, ¡Dios le Bendiga!

Our trip to Mexico got off to a rocky start. Due to some family illness issues with the Aguilera family, we not only left 2 hours late but made an unscheduled stop in Wharton to visit their daughter in the Hospital. The trip to the border should take 6 hours and we were scheduled to leave at 4 AM. By the time we actually arrived at the border it was after 2PM. By the time we stopped in 4 different exchange houses to convert our dollars to pesos and purchased our vehicle insurance it was after 4 PM. Thankfully we all agreed that pushing on at that point was problematic so we spent the night in San Benito and attempted an early start on Saturday. We were at the 24 hour free trade bridge by 7:30 only to discover that while the bridge is open 24 hours a day, the immigration office did not open until 9 AM. Drive down to Brownsville, find another bridge, encounter the typical paper work delays, we finally crossed into Mexico around 10AM on Saturday instead of 2 PM on Friday.

Our plans to finalize the purchase of the property on Saturday were unrealized. We made an appointment with a lawyer in Ciudad Mante for Monday. By now I can report that the seller did not have all the paper work together at that meeting so we try again tomorrow morning. No major problems, just the typical paper work hassles that accompany such transactions in Mexico.

On the positive side, we had very good attendance at the Sunday morning services at El Limonal with roughly 30 adults and 20 kids meeting in the front yard of Brother Andres. This morning we had 40 children and 12 adults participating in VBS in addition to the 19 workers and teachers making it happen. We were allowed to use the new property this morning even though the deal is not yet completed. If this year is anything like previous years, attendance will grow by leaps and bounds each day. We picked up more supplies today to be ready for tomorrow morning.

We were blessed this morning with excellent weather. It probably never topped 90 degrees and we were in a shady yard with a pleasant breeze. It really did feel great. Excitement is building and I personally will be very glad to finish the purchase of the property.

We will have more stories and more information as the week progresses. Today was our first opportunity to locate a cyber-cafe and get work back out to our friends and family back home.

Please keep us in your prayers this week.

In Him,

Jim {Santiago} Lamar