In case I haven't seen you or you haven't heard . . .

I'm home.

Just thought I would put that out there.

I was there just last week . . . with these beautiful people.

This last week has simply been outstanding.

There are so many photos that I want to share . . . so many stories about my little vacation week.

But is has been a long and busy week . . . my internet connection has been limited, so today was the first time I was able to get my photos online and have access to blogger.

Here is just a little preview of the stories I want to share over the next few days.

We spent this past week hanging out in Tuxtla and taking day trips to some of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

Monday we went to San Cristobal . . .

Tuesday, we took a two hour boat ride
through this spectacular canyon . . .

Wednesday, this fine group of people . . . went here :

There are many more pictures you can check out here . . . I hope to post some more in the next few days . . . as I am anxious to share with you all that I experienced this week.

Be well and smile.

It has been a few days since I have posted . . . things have been busy here.

Tron, Curt & Jonathan were here visting from Columbus . . . I enjoyed their company immensely . . . especially all the adventures we went on together.

Monday was spent largely with coffee business . . . including seeing a coffee plantation way up in the mountains.

Tuesday we toured some of the churches in the area . . . including Benito Juarez & El Diamante. We got to spend the afternoon with Dr. Ruiz & his family in La Concordia.

Wednesday we headed up to Villa Flores to pick up Ruth and to visit a "zoo" there. After our time there we headed to Tuxtla to spend the night . . . since Tron, Curt & Jonathan would be leaving early the next morning.

Here is a photo review :

This is Silmer . . . he works with the coffee co-op. He took us up to plantations in El Naranjo. It was quite an experience to see where coffee starts . . . and to learn about how much work it takes to get a finished cup coffee from this plant.

The coffee plantation was sort of in the woods (aka - jungle) . . . Danny and Manuel went off the trail a bit and picked some bananas off of a tree.

This our group with the Ruiz Family . . . we had lunch by the lake in La Concordia. Juan was not with us . . . so I ended up having to do most of the translating for the conversations that took place. It was quite an adventure for me.

After we picked up Ruth . . . we went to a zoo in Villa Flores. The zoo is basically some really wealthy woman's collection of animals. This a photo of Ruth playing with a baby jaguar . . . we were able to unreasonably close to the animals. It was definetly an experience.


We ended our time together in Tuxtla. This is Danny & Juan standing at a "look out" point on the road into Tuxtla. That night we had dinner at Applebee's . . . which tasted just like home. The next morning we took Tron, Curt & Jonathan to the airport. We then spent the day with Maria's family. Juan, Danny, Ruth and I eventually ended up at the movies . . . we saw "Die Hard 4".

I have no idea what we will be doing these next few days . . . but I am sure it will be nothing short of adventurous.

Be Peace.

In the last three weeks I have often found myself struggling to find the words to describe the beauty I am encountering.

I have a feeling I am going to have that problem tonight.

This evening was the closing service for Project Paul.

I want to hold the things I heard . . . the things I felt . . . the things I experienced . . . tonight and these past three weeks . . . in my heart forever.

We arrived to the closing service late . . . because we (Danny, Juan & I) were picking up Tron, Cut & Jonathan up from the airport.

As I walked in Claudia came up to me and told me that everyone was going to have to give a testimony about the week . . . my heart nearly stopped.

So I sat there for about the next hour, thinking of what I would say . . . how I would describe my experience with the project.

There were plenty of funny stories to tell . . . leche caliente, Manuel leaving me in Tigrilla, and late nights with the youth.

But for some reason, I opted not to go the funny and nerve relieving route . . . I went for what my gut was telling me . . . I decided to share how deeply I felt about what I had experienced.

I told them how I felt awkward the first week, that I was just a "gringo" who was going to get in the way . . . and how grateful I was that they let me be a part of this project.

I also told them that I felt a little "useless" at times because I could not speak Spanish very well . . . and so much of this trip was conversation based.

But the awkwardness and my lack Spanish did not really seem to get in the way of what God wanted to do.

And I think that was the point of these three weeks . . . that it was not really about me at all . . . but about God and His plans.

I didn't have much faith that we could plant/start a church in three weeks . . . and the truth is that we couldn't.

But God did . . . and experiencing that has changed my life.

Project Paul may be over . . . but there is still a great amount of work to be done.

On Sunday night as everyone was headed home . . . going their seperate ways for the first time in three weeks, Gaby (the team leader in Tigrilla) turned me and said, "Don't forget Tigrilla".

And I told her . . . there is no way I ever could.

He wanted to really live . . .

. . . so he had to die . . .

. . . and now he is truly alive.

This was my yesterday . . .

Someone donated twenty chairs for each of the new churches.

They all had to be painted white.

Danny and I got through about half of them yesteday morning.

I ended my day in Tigrilla . . . at the "culto" which was
attended by 12 adults, 11 teenagers & 18 children.
Because of Proyecto Pablo there is a now a church in
Tigrilla . . . a new group of people who want to follow Jesus.

I have learned many lessons in my three weeks here in Mexico.

One of the greatest . . . most meaningful lessons . . . has been about friendship.

You see . . . I have learned that friendship does not care about things like language or time.

It simply happens . . . it simply is.

There really are some things that are the same in every language . . . some things that do not really need words at all.

For this I am extremely grateful.

Karo & Me in Tigrilla.

Today I had my second experience with the earth shaking beneath my feet.

Apparently there was 6.1 earthquake in Tuxtla this evening . . . which is the main city about two hours away from here.

We felt a slight tremor here in Jaltenango during dinner . . . it was a bit bigger than the first I felt sometime last week when I was in Tigrilla . . . it lasted a little longer, too.

My time in Mexico has definetly brought about a lot of firsts . . . but I say experiencing an earthquake comes close to top of the "coolest" firsts.

Things are going well here . . . there are many stories to share . . . I was thinking today that I cannot wait to come home and tell people the stories that go with the hundreds of pictures I have taken.

To describe what it felt like to stand on what seemed like the top of the world . . . or share about some ridiculous game I played with the teenagers in Tigrilla.

Right now I know my pictures may seem like random images . . . but there are beautiful stories hidden in each picture . . . beautiful stories that I will take with me in my heart.

I'll be home in about month to share them with you.

I have heard it said that pictures speak a thousand words . . . but I don't think that pictures or words could capture the last 48 hours of my life.

The team in Tigrilla needed an extra "body" for a couple of days , so they sent the gringo . . . I am so very grateful that they did.

There are so many little stories from the last few days . . . from how I ended up there, to my experiences with "regla uno" and just tales from hanging out with twenty teenagers.

But my time is limited . . . so I am choosing to simply share with you a few photos of the people I spent the last two days with.

Hopefully I will have some time in the days to come to share more of my experiences with you.

Juan Carlos and Franscico . . . Franscico is obsessed with
learning English.I think every other word out of his mouth is asking
me how to say something in English.

Me, Mauricisio, & Alexis.

Mauricisio wanted a group shot holding the picture of the
American Flag he asked me to draw and sign for him . . .

David and Jose Manuel . . . our two bodyguards.
These guys follow us around on their bikes everywhere we go.
I don't think I could ask for better company.

This is most of the group at the "culto" (service) last night.
What an amazing and funny group of young people.

Did I mention how excited I am to go back tomorrow?