The Color Purple!

The color purple. The ancient process of coloring with purple began most successfully here in Oaxaca. More specifically on the coast of Huatulco. The color was extracted from snails found in the sea. Check out the Oct 8th Awake on Homelessness for more details. So cool, we can relate so much more now to the articles, they´re more meaningful. Have a look...

Recruitment

"Recruitment is the name of game!" so says our P.O. Curtis Smith. One morning at the field service meeting he asked, "What are you doing to fully accomplish your ministry in Oaxaca?" People responded with return visits, studies, working the territory, etc. Then he gave us the example of a farmer who had more fields than he alone could harvest. So what would he do? Focus just on his most productive field and abandon the rest? Or hope that soon the productive field would slowly spread and grow into the other fields? No, he would solicite more workers!

Congregation Arbol del Tule has 43 publishers. A third of the congregation are pioneers. Arbol del Tule has the highest publisher field service average any than other congregation in the whole country of Mexico including Spanish. Our 43 publishers preach in English an average of 22 hours each month! And yet our field ratio is 1 publisher to 20,000 in the state of Oaxaca. Currently we have 6 native English speakers (including Brandon and I) in the hall. The PO wants to double our publishers by recruiting 20 more Mexican brothers who speak English and 20 Americans and Canadians who can move to Mexico. The goal is to have a strong congregation in Oaxaca so we can start branching off into more bookstudy groups. In order to do that we need more brothers and sisters!

In January, Brandon and I are returning home. Two Mexican ministerial servants who speak perfect english are moving from our congregation to the coast of Huatulco to start up an English book study there. In Feburary, two pioneer sisters are following to go support the book study in Huatulco. While this is good news, it leaves little Oaxaca with even less publishers. But Jehovah does provide. Next month an older pioneer couple is coming to buy a house and will be moving down in March. Two single brothers from North Carolina will be coming down in Janurary for 3 months. Next Novemeber another couple will be moving down to retire here. So that makes 6 American brothers coming which leaves 14 more that need to be recruited.

The Master is begging YOU, our harvest is great but the workers are few!!!

In Oaxaca, you'll find fantastic mountains, a cool mild climate all year round, the Pacific ocean, white sand beaches, cheap accomdations, all the tortillas you can eat, beans and cheese out your ears, and above all the most warm, loving and welcoming brothers! All right here in Oaxaca, Mexico Arbol del Tule congregation!!!

If you can make any arrangements to come down and help work the territory the need is here. If the circumstances aren't at your disposal, please pass the word about the need in Oaxaca! It's exciting to personally be at the brink of the expansion of English. Brandon and I can fondly look back when Huatulco and Puerto Escondido are a congregation and know that we attended the very first bookstudy in those cities.

Zaachila and Cuilapam

Spent the morning in loose informal service while we meandered through Oaxaca, down the Zocalo and took a bus on to Zaachila. I small town just outside. They have a fantastic market on Thursdays...everything FRESH! Live chickens and turkeys for sell to kill, fruit, jicama (see Awake Oct 22), Nopal (see Awake Nov 8), red mole, black mole, special mole (they ship the mole from Zaachila to the US), chapulines (grasshoppers) ---we made Matt try these without telling him what they were!---, woven baskets, hand woven bags, meat, flowers, hammocks, aprons, etc.. Here, the pics show it better!

Cuilapam is an old monestary, now in ruins. The architecture is extremely photogenic. See for yourself!

For more detailed pics see our yahoo photos site. Link has been posted in previous blogs.

Matt´s here!

So Matt got here. We went over to a friends house, another couple came with their baby Chelsea, and we ate a nice meal of Amarillo! Now we´re here (internet). Tomorrow service, quick visit to Zaachila and Cuilapan...unos pueblos...

Mom´s Visit

Admist meeting Jack Black this past week, we also visited some incredible sights! We wandered through the Zapotec ruins of Monte Alban.

Visited the mineral springs of Hierve el Agua (the water boils). The water has been seeping out for ages and has left salt deposited to form what looks like a waterfall. The road up there was just as adventurous. Our little rental car climbed and climbed up the moutains, above where the eagles were soaring, passing the mules climbing cliffs and cattle being goaded by small girls and small dogs.






We also had a wild time on a 4 hour long Safari in Puebla. We could pull right up to animals such as giraffe´s, rhino´s, hippos, ostrich´s, tigers, black bears, lions, elephants, buffalo, wildabeasts, anteaters, baboons, zebras, etc. I´m talking arm lengths from the car! The animals weren´t afraid of the cars or humans. Definetly worth the 12 bucks if can´t afford to actually go down to Africa!

Nacho Libre

Today we headed out to one of the many markets of Oaxaca. The first one we were going to this morning was the organic market located in the ancient aqueducts of the city. On going to the market, we saw a movie set outside one of the arches of the duct. I thought it was just some Mexican movie being shot, so we continued on our way and went to the market. We got there and were looking around when Sherry tells me she forgot her camera. I gave her the keys to the car and that was that.

A few minutes later, she comes back and says to me, ¨Guess who is the producer of the movie! Jack Black!!¨ I didn´t really believe her, but I got excited anyway. So we hurry what we were doing and go back to the set. She had told me that she saw JB dressed as a monk. We get to the set, and I see this Mexican guy dressed as a monk. I´m thinkin, GREAT! This Mexican actor has stolen another actor´s name! I did think it strange though, all the producers and the director were english speaking white guys.

So we stand in the background listening to the director (Jared Hess) and the producers talk. We watched Jared Hess in action directing the scene. Just for relativity, Jared Hess is the guy who directed Napolean Dynamite! So I´m waiting for them to stop talking so I can ask what the movie is about. I was sorta scared that if I asked them they would kick us away from the set. But Sherry jumps right in and asks what it´s about. When the producer is telling us what it´s about, I remember reading somewhere about it. Nacho Libre is about a half Mexican man (Jack Black)who goes to Mexico (or was he already there?) to learn to become a monk . Unfortunately, he falls in love with a beautiful Mexican nun, which is obviously forbidden if he´s to be a monk. So to show his manliness, at night, he becomes a Mexican wrestler named...NACHO LIBRE! So we film more and take pics and the producer INVITES US TO SIT DOWN IN THE MOVIE PEOPLE CHAIRS!! HOW AWESOME!!

Anyway, we´re waiting for Jack to show up, and the producer is being nice and asking questions about Sherry, me, and Gwyn. Then we see JB coming up! It was really cool to watch him cause the crowd parted for a short chunky guy in a monk suit. So they get started with this part of the film. What JB was supposed to do was to sneak up one of the arches, peek around and come back, take some nachos out of his pocket, run around the corner, throw the nachos and run back. I´m sure it´ll make more sense when the film comes out. We watched these takes five times. There was the whole ¨ACTION!¨ and ¨CUT!¨ and ¨QUIET ON THE SET!!¨

After all this, JB and the producer talk a little bit and they start rearranging the set. Apparently they don´t need JB for a bit, so he whips out his Nintendo DS (Yes Vince and Joey, he has one) and starts to play. I ask the producer if it would be okay if we went over to go get a picture with him. The producer thinks and said he would go ask JB if it would be okay. Next thing we know, he´s standing up and coming towards us!! It was really COOL! Unfortunately, he did look a little put out of coming over, but we were grateful anyway. So I introduce myself, Sherry, and Gwyn and he asks us how long we´re going to be here, etc. Just basic stuff. So we get our picture taken with Jack Black! He may look heavy, but he´s SOLID as a rock! We even got VIDEO!! We were just blown away that of all places to produce a movie, they choose OAXACA MEXICO!! Apparently they filmed the week we were gone to the beach in the park that´s right across the street from our home. Also in the towns of Mitla and Etla all of which we´ve been!

So that´s our day. I´ve been almost EXPLODING to get this out! HERE ARE DA PICS!! Oh, NACHO LIBRE! IN THEATERS JUNE 2006!

CO visit pics

These pics are slightly old. They´re from last month. Some pics of us at the lunch (I actually cooked!) with the CO in Oaxaca. Pics of our very hard time preaching on the coast :P Itzel in a sand mermaid and so on...