Seasoned with Salt

The last few days has been an extreemly emotionally draining week for me.  There were a couple issues that popped up creating much added stress and tension.  Obviously I can't share all these details. 

Thursday was a special parents night at the school.   I was assigned to sell hot tamales (not the candy).  I gladly accepted.  I hate having no clue what I'm suppose to do and would much gladly have a task for the entire time.  I was with two other "gringos" and a few of the Mexican staff had to take a picture because it was quite comical.  It might have been the first time 3 American females sold tamales in Mexico.  I can tell my Spanish was improving because that's what I had to use and I made it through the night with little help.  There were only a few times I wasn't exactly sure what I was being asked and that was mainly because I was distracted. 

After the parents meeting I had two parents come up to me.  One humbly apologized for her child that was involved in one of the weeks stressful incidents.  She thanked me and totally backed up my decission as it would be what she did as a Christian parent.  It was very good to hear back from this parent because I had been extreemly discouraged earlier.  I had been made to feel like I had rediculous expectations, but I knew in my heart as a parent I would want this to be done.  It was so good to hear from this parent that they were thankful that I did interveen.

Then I had another parent (who is also on the board) come up to me and buy a tamale.  As he did, I asked a few questions about his son.  He very well meaningly takes me to the side to talk.  I know that his intentions were good, but he ended up being extreemly discouraging.  It was discouraging because while he thinks he knows what's going on and how I should be handling things he really doesn't.  He didn't take in accout that my situation is different than his and he really doesn't know anything about me or what I have done except for what he's heard.  The things he was saying I could quickly have come back with why this is a totally different situation and I could have argued everyone one of his points, but thankfully God gave me the grace to just listen.  (Although I ended up crying at the end of the conversation.) 

This really made me think how our words affect people.  I'm sure I have been guilty of doing this many different times.  We might be well meaning, but then we end up coming across in an extremly hurtful way because we lack understanding.  We think because we had a situation similar that we are an expert.  We might not realize really what a person has done or gone through and instead of sitting down to find out we assume they must not being doing something right. 

This gentlemen that came up to me spoke in a very quite calm manner desiring to help, but he compared my situation to things that really weren't comparable.  He basically had made judgement of what he thought he knew.  Much of me would like to share all the examples I could give of what he said and why he was mistaken, but that will do no good.  I just need to take this and learn from it.  I need to try to watch what I say that I don't end up extreemly discourageing to others.  Because although I had two parents come up, one that was encouraging and one discouraging, I couldn't help dwelling more on the discouraging comments than the encouraging ones.  I need to be more cautious with the words I say to others. 

Colossians 4:6
Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

LOVE

I have been thinking about what love really is. I think many times we have this grave misunderstanding that to love someone is to accept everything about them and let them do whatever they want. I think we like to cut and paste the Bible and pick out what we want to think. We think of the I Corinthians 13 passage that “4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” Love certainly is all of these things, but we forget the rest. 6 “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” To love someone is to not ignore the evil in their life or pretend there isn’t a problem or delight in it. When we don’t stand up and speak the truth in someone’s life we are not protecting that person from further hardships down the road. We are allowing their life to continue down a reckless spiral of destruction.  I believe sometimes love has the grueling responsibility to guide people to the truth that they are sinners and their hearts are evil. That if they don’t change they are going to get smacked in the face with really severe consequences. Being loving isn't a popularity contest where people are always going to like everything you say.  Do we ignore the passages on discipline in the Bible where clearly it is the loving thing to do? Passages like Hebrews 12, Deuteronomy 8:5, Proverbs 3:12. I feel we desperately cannot.

When I hear people explaining to me their ideas of love that only include the fluff, I think about all the different times leaders and teachers in the Bible got in the people’s faces. Many were blunt about what was going to happen. They didn’t skirt around it. Both Jesus and John the Baptist called people “vipers”, snakes. Jesus tells the crowds its generation was wicked and adulterous. Even at the risk of their lives, the disciples got in peoples faces and told them they crucified Jesus. Joshua draws a line in the sand and tells the people to choose that day who they were going to serve. He didn’t say it was okay to keep dabbling in the ways of the world he said make a choice. Those are just a few instances of many others that could be brought up.

I feel like when we just stick to the hugs and kisses, fluff type of love we really don’t love. If I never corrected my children, if I let them do whatever they wanted and get whatever they want, I would be a terrible parent. I wouldn’t really be showing love to my child. True love guides it doesn’t ignore. Sometimes love has to be blunt to wake someone up that’s headed down a path of destruction. Truly loving someone does not avoid discipline or correction. Especially in those relationships were a person is a parent, teacher, pastor or mentor.

First Futbol Game! CHIVAS!

Last night we went to our first Latin American Futbal game! It was quite an experience. We saw the Guadalajara Chivas play the San Luis. There are 3 professional teams in Guadalajara, but the Chivas are THE team in the city. They play in a brand new stadium called Estadio Omnilife. It was actually built in preparation of the Pan American games coming here this fall. They say it is the most technologically advanced futbol stadium in Latin America. It is beautiful. It looks like a space ship from both the outside and the inside. The picture at the below shows how the stadium looks from the outside with the grass coming up the whole stadium. San Luis was not a very popular team so the place was only half full. It packs out when the teams from Mexico City or Monterrey come to town.

Below you can see the boys go their picture taken with the team mascot, a Chiva (goat). I think that was the highlight for them. We had nose bleed seats, but I think they were the best as you could really follow the whole game. This poorly done sideways picture is the "Purro". This is the specially designated cheering group for each team. You pay extra to be part of the "Purro" kind of like a season ticket holder. This is the group that we often see at futbol games on TV. They stand the whole game chanting, beating drums, and generally yelling obscene things at the other team I'm told. We have not learned those words! Regretfully, the game ended in a 1-1 tie. David declared that he hates ties more then anything in the world!

I apologize for the crooked pictures. Blogger is driving me crazy tonight!

Foods That Never Should Have Come to Mexico

I have decided to start a set of regular posts dedicated to foods that should have never been introduced to the Mexican mainland. Part 1 Sushi!

What I had in mind for there posts is not food that is inedible, but food that when tasted by someone who knows what the food should taste like cringes in horror. Kind of like this mental Italian mamma I have in my head who cringes everytime I make boxed spaghetti then pour jarred Ragu marina sauce with meatballs on it and think I'm eating real spaghetti! That's what I have in mind. With this being said, there are a lot of Mexican foods I love that should have never been introduced into the States. We have a lot of Mexican mommas cringing!



With that being said, Mexico should have never been given rights to Sushi. In fact, I hope the next trade pact between Japan and Mexico involves the sending of real sushi chefs. Now, they do use rice and generally it is in a roll form, they even serve it with Soy sauce that has a bottle that makes it look like there was a remote chance an Asian approved of this sauce before sending it out. Other then that, the big Asian mamma is cringing!



First, with the exception of one upscale Sushi house I went to here, they never serve it with Wasabi. Real sushi needs Wasabi or at least the fake green Wasabi we get in the states. Here I often get chopped Jalapenos in Soy Sauce. Yet it is spicy, but it's not the same. Kind of like Tang and Sunny D are both orange drinks but they are not the same!



Secondly, sushi should generally not have "queso" cheese in it. Now maybe some of you in the states like your Philadelphia rolls, but the rest of us luckily can enjoy the other 95 percent of rolls that are made like they are supposed to! Come on has anyone ever seen cheese at a real Sushi House! Here every roll is made with cream cheese. Yesterday I orderd a roll for myself that said was topped shrimp with standard vegies in the middle. It failed to tell me that under the shrimp was a large chunk of cream cheese. I ordered Edan a fried chicken roll (I thought he would eat it) with avocado and you guessed it, big chunk of cream cheese. All rolls here have cream cheese, it should not be, do you hear me, IT SHOULD NOT BE!



Finally, Sushi should not be made with Uncle Ben's rice. There is specific rice for Sushi, I don't know the name, but they don't use it here (At least I haven't found it yet). Rolling Uncle Ben's is not a substitute.



Next Week Nacho Doritos!

Rediscovering Scripture Meditation

One of my personal goals in coming here was rebuilding my prayer life, Scripture memory, and meditation. I have to say with shame that I had allowed the busyness of my life, "demands" of my job, and general bleakness of my Spirit to let those things move to a less important part of my life over the last couple of years. Much of God's direction in leading me here, I believed, was to rediscover Him afresh. He has not dissapointed.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have again begun to understand the treasures and beauty of spending time meditating on the Truth of the Bible that I had long forgotten. About a month, after we arrived here, I told Joy "I feel God leading me to memorize 1 Timothy". This was probably in September. Two weeks ago I started this journey (quite obedient). I have paired this time with my daily long walks through Guadalajara and the surrounding Colonias. I had forgotten what I had been missing for too long. These truly have become the most anticipated and gratifying times of my day the last two weeks. I will often find myself walking for over an hour just lost in thought and truth of God's written Word.

With this being said, I realized today that I need to start recording these fresh truths and glorious times. Like all times, here and today will eventually fade away, as will my peaceful walk through Guadalajara, but Scripture truths learned will endure forever. I am going to star a little side blog on our blog here called "Walking with Timothy". It for the most part will just be a rambling of truth and thoughts that God has brought me to on the daily Scripture. Changes he is brining about in me personally. I am keeping it seperately from the blog so you don't have to be overwhelmed with it daily if you choose not to. For those of you interested, I would love your feedback, how these daily verses have impacted your life over time, or "fellow walkers" with Timothy.

Farm Fresh Junk Food

 In the United States, I would often hear of the fresh movement or organic movement where many strived to eat as much natural local grown food as possible. Here in Guadalajara there is not need for such a movement, everything is genrerally local and fresh. Of course, you can go to Walmart or another big box grocery store and buy apples from Washington, Bannanas from Nicaragua or beef from Argentina, but if you walk down the street you can also buy all of those items that literally have been grown within 25 miles of where we live.

The local market thrives here in every colonia (suberb) of Guadalajara. As new comers in the fall, we were often scared to avail ourselves of the delights of the local butcher or market vendor, but as we have been here longer we make less trips to the box stores and spend more time shopping daily and enjoying "fresh food". Of course, most of this fresh food is the "same" foods we buy at the box stores only sitting in crates in a local open air market, on the side of the street or cut freshly at a store front butcher. I bought a bag of the avocados to the right today. 

Today I got a real "farm fresh" treat. I fall into the small group of devoted fans who love the pork rind or as it is called here "Chicharron de Cerdo". Normally, I have always bought these pre packaged off the shelves of my local corner store, today I got special introduction to the pork rind. As I was walking today, I walked past one of our local butchers and outside he had just started a large vat (looked like a giant wok) of boiling oil (above). I stopped to watch and a I did he brought out a large bin of freshly butchered pig skin (small fact, it looks much better after it is fried!). He dumped it into the oil and let it fry. As he pulled it out, I could not resist but ask for a "bolsa chica" small bag. As he put them into the bag they were still crackling from the oil. I began popping them into my mouth and they were both wonderful and scary at the same time. They had a familiar flavor with a stronger pork taste. For the most part, it was truly a bag of "farm fresh" fried junk food. But as you find with truly fresh food, every once in a while you get a rind that exposes a little to much of the pig's flavor.

For the most part, I have tried to spare this blog the updates of my excursions into local cuisine (3 weeks ago I had pickled pig's feet for the first time), but this was to tasty an experience to pass up!

Living Through (Or Should I Say Walking) Contradiction

As the New Year dawned, I like half the Western world felt an increased verve to lose weight. I also made this decision because of constant back pain and knowing that weight loss could greatly help my back. One thing, I decided to bring with me was a pedometer (Step Counter). Because of pain, I can't run much or play many sports, so steps would be my exercise of choice. This is where much of this started.

Because Guadalajara has the world's best weather (Google the question if you don't believe me), every day is beautiful. I knew I needed to take advantage of this so I have focused on trying to walk everywhere. The more I walk, the more I see. One thing that I have begun to see daily ( I saw it before, but only sporadically) was the poor of Mexico picking through my trash bags every morning. I knew this was happening, but not until I began to see it everyday, and not just at my house but everywhere I walked did it really strike me. Not only did I see it daily, but I began to see what they were recovering from my trash. I briefly addressed this in my last post, but it has impacted me to an even greater level recently.

So I have been challenged by a somewhat Spiritual contradiction. I need to lose weight because of my inability to avoid the abundance of my cupboards. They also find importance in the abundance of my cupboards. Not to overindulge, but to survive daily. At moments I feel blessed, and honestly a somewhat comical thought comes to mind "Maybe I should eat half of everything so they always find enough". But then a sadness comes to mind because I have the ability to have that thought and they don't. God has a great deal to say about Christian charity to the poor in Scripture. The Bible is overflowing with the directives. What more should these directives lead me to do daily?

New Year's Perspective

This morning as I was walking from school to my house I saw three different individuals with wheelbarrows or carts going from house to house collecting whatever they could from the garbage cans on the street. While most were from a distance, I did end up walking by one woman who was pulling out a peice of what looked like half eaten "Rosca de Reyes" (See previous post) to take with her. The sight of it broke my heart and honestly sickened my stomach.

It is in these moments that you really are struck with a sense of perspective in life. Frivolous thoughts that fill our lives and time become embarrassments. For most of us reading this, even worries over money became foolish at best. We realize that the meaning of the words "just getting by" take on very different meanings for us then they do for other people. I personally begin to wonder how my abundance can support their lack of. I don't always now the answer to that question, but I know it is a question worth continuing to ask.

Maybe it's worth a resolution.

Feliz Dia de Reyes!

Happy Day of the Kings! 

Another great Mexican tradition.  One I wish I would have had growing up because I like it a lot better.  This is the day the wisemen come to bring Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. (see foot note A.) 

In Northern and Southern Mexico many open presents on this day instead of Christmas.  The wisemen come to bring children gifts.  They fill up the kids shoes that were left outside the door the night before.  Sometimes the children will also get a new pair of shoes in exchange for their old. 

In the area that we are living most people do not open presents on January 6th.  They have adopted the tradition of Santa Clause and open presents on the 24th or 25th.  But they do buy or bake the Rosca de Reyes and eat it.  The King's ring is a Mexican Bread with candied peppers and cherries cooked on top.  But the fun part is a little toddler Jesus doll is cooked into the bread.  Each family member cuts a piece of bread to see if they get the little doll in their piece.  The lucky person is suppose to then invite everyone over for Tamales later.  Joelle was our lucky winner.  Her piece had the little doll. 

Joelle and Edan dressed up as Kings this morning.  Well...that is when they weren't a doctor, a princess, or a super hero! 

Note A.  Frankincense and myrrh are both sap from trees. Frankincense was used for making incense and myrrh was also used for spices and medicinal purposes.   Myrrh was one of the most valuable spices in the day of Jesus. Zondervan's Pictorial Bible Dictionary

Goals

We have had family this week so I haven't had much time to post.  It's been good running them around and showing them Mexico. 

Tonight I have been reading some of my friends blogs and many of them have put up New Year resolutions.  I never give much thought to New Year resulotions.  I like the fact that each day if I mess up I can start over not having to wait for the next year.  Therefore I can make a resolution any time or day of the year.  I like the verse Lamentations 3:22-23 "The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."  (English Standard Version) It's nice to know that no matter how many times I mess up God is always faithful to love me and show me undeserved mercy.

That being said it probably is good to set goals for yourself.  Last year my goal was to finish my degree after a dozen years and three babies later I can now say I have my degree.  There is also something to telling someone your goals.  At least for me it pushes me to that next level.  I'm much more likely to succeed and accomplish it if I know I've told several other people what I want to accomplish.  I don't want them to know I'm a big failure.  So here are my two goals for 2011. 

1. Learn Spanish
2. Make the MOST of my opportunities here in Mexico, including learning from those around me. 


Those are pretty big goals so I better leave it at that.