Greetings from Mexico! As planned, our family made it across the border on Wednesday August 6th… and with one week of life in Chihuahua under our belts, we’re incredibly excited to see what God has in store for the next one!
Our preparations to enter Mexico were bathed in continual prayer, and we saw God’s faithfulness firsthand when the time came to leave El Paso. Our visas were approved and issued in one day, despite our application photos’ ‘errors’: glasses, smiles, and even our hairstyles were (too late to change) apparently not up to par, yet that didn’t slow God’s timing! And the crossing itself was uneventful; expected fees were paid, and two inspections of our trailer took a combined five minutes and thirty seconds. What a gift from the Lord!
The majority of this past week has been spent at the Van Wormers’ house, with Amy’s sister Maria and her family. We enjoyed a time of recovery from our month-long travels, began to set up our new house by unloading and unpacking the trailer, and answered critical questions like “how do we get there,” “how much should I tip for this,” and “how on earth do I get someone to pick up our garbage?” We started to have fun exploring the culture of our new homeland! Amy went in for a pregnancy doctor’s appointment (baby’s doing great!), and learned that her full name is not what it once was. Here, Amy is legally “Amy Rebecca Greenslade Schwartz de Husband.” She may need to start re-practicing her signature!
Yesterday (August 12th), we officially moved in to our house. There is more setup and unpacking left than we can shake a stick at, so we bypassed stick-shaking in favor of actually doing those things! We may be at work on those projects for some time as other parts of life intrude – just got hot water this afternoon, for example – but we are so thankful for our new home in Chihuahua. We have been having dinner with different members of the Mexican leadership team each night, and experiencing cultural events such as buying Mexican cell phones. (My turn to get a name change: I’m now Jordan Lee Husband Guldjord!)
How can you be praying for us these next few weeks? I’m so glad you asked… we might have a few ideas. Thank you for bringing some of these areas before the Lord!
- Our minivan is having problems again, combining issues from Washington with those in El Paso and moving on to new areas. At this point we could not drive it as far as El Paso.
- The mechanics of setting up our home are extensive; there is much to do, and we’re finding that as we’ve often heard previously: “Everything takes longer in Mexico!”
- While traveling, we necessarily fell behind on a lot of regular work we do continually in life. Catching up will take time, and it will be easy to miss things.
- Don and Chrissy Chubb will shortly replace us as NTM-Mexico’s newest arrivals! They’ve come safely to El Paso, and will cross the border soon.
- You may have heard that we’re expecting a new baby next month? A few things in life just might change as a result!
- Finally, as we learn Spanish and start adjusting to a whole new way of life… please pray for God to strengthen us to that task on a daily basis!
Cousin Makenna says
Love you all. So is the name Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz?
Praying for you! Excited about your new little family member to come into the world
Sharon Guldjord (Gramme/GiGi says
Ha!! I always knew you were a Guldjord!!! Funny, Funny, Funny! Is that their way of tracing ancestors?
So glad you have gotten through your first week successfully! What a blessing to be on the way to your
dreams of sharing God’s Word and His Love. My love and prayers surround you. I miss all of you so
much, but I’m willing to share you with the work of God. I am proud of you and know that God will
use you because you are so willing and obedient to Him. Give hugs and kisses to the children from GiGi
and save some for yourselves from Grammie. Tell Elayne that her letter and pictures are on the
cupboard just below her pictures in my kitchen. I see them every day. Thank you for keeping us
posted on your lives. Jordan, you know how I feel about you. Amy, my excitement about the baby
is great. I’m so glad all is well with you and the baby. I look at the ultrasound pictures every day
and wonder if its a boy or girl and what the name will be. I care, I’m praying and I love you all,
Grammie/GiGi A special hug for Titus!