Got back from Juxtlahauaca (it didn’t start with an H, which I should’ve known) on Friday, but just finally found some time to provide some details on what was an interesting week.
We headed out early Tuesday morning and picked up the guy who was bringing us out to the town. Profe’ Agustin is a well known and respected teacher who’s sons live in the town we are going to. They are a doctor and a lawyer. So they’re not hurting for money at all. Not sure why they needed wells dug.
(note: I am rewriting this as it was up to 1300 words and I really didn’t like it much. But I guess you won’t notice!)
I’m going to try and be a little more succint here. So quick summaries all around!
Well drilling: very frustrating. We had two sites and both weren’t that successful. One location we didn’t get much more than a metre down and the other I am pretty sure we went up. Not what you want in a well. We also were treated like circus animals at times as we would have people come and just watch us. But we decided by the end of the week that we weren’t here (in God’s plan) to drill dry wells for rich people. More on that coming…
Water locating: My buddy Dan has a special talent. We’ll call it water “holy spiriting”. The man can find water every time. And this was known by Profe’ so Dan ended up spending the majority of the week traveling all over the region looking for water. It wasn’t all bad, Dan ended up getting offered a bag of beans, a calf and at least 5 wives. But we only ended up coming home with the beans. We told him he should’ve taken the calf. That would have been cool. Kind of “City Slickers” like.
The Radio Show: I’m a radio star now! Um, well I have spoken on the radio now. I think it is also safe to say that I am the first Canadian to talk about how we need to run away from the moose and seals on our front yards on 100.3 FM in Jux… But here’s what really happened. Jordan on our team had the chance to witness to who he found out later was the owner of the local station (and #1 in the market!) and the owner was so excited about the gospel that he asked our entire team to come on his show that night and give the same message. He also wanted us to talk about what we were doing in town. Jordan was smart and called up one of the leaders of GFM and he came out with a local Mexican pastor as well.
The start of the radio interview was pretty basic: questions about what were doing, what we can do, where we’re from, etc. But then the host asked the pastor if he wanted to say anything and the pastor responded by preaching for about 10 minutes. A pure, beautiful gospel message it was. And the host (the owner) was almost in tears. That guy is going to be saved soon. Even the show producer was in tears. Just cool. The next day one of the Mexicans we were working with mentioned that he heard the show as well. And everywhere we went we heard that station so there was a LOT of people who heard the gospel that night. I think it’s safe to say that this was one of the reasons we were in town,
Parading through town: It’s not quite what it sounds like. Well, it wasn’t an official parade with floats and candy. But the couple of times when we were going to the doctor’s house for a meal we would have to walk through the centre of town (following Profe’ who loves to show off “his” gringos) and let all the townspeople stare at us. And it had to be a little weird for them. Because we weren’t a small group in terms of physical size. Most of us were over six feet and half of the team are pushing 200 pounds. I think we almost looked like bodyguards.
The enchanted lake: After a long week of parades and dry hole digging, as well as the spiritual warfare because of the gospel being preached, we were tired. So we had a little time on Friday while Dan was out on another tour looking for water and we headed to a little lagoon just outside of town. It’s name is “The Enchanted Lagoon” and I understand it’s kind of a holy site for Mexican Catholics. The people come to bathe here right before Easter for some reason or another. But we were told we could go swimming in it, so we did. In our undies. It was cold and I suspect extremely dirty. But worth it.
Summary: An interesting week. We definitely weren’t there for finding water. But God used us to do some awesome work. Obviously the gospel being preached over the airwaves was huge. And we made some good relationships with some locals who will most likely be thinking about what we said. But the biggest thing in Juxtlahauacais the level of sin present. Adultry especially. You could feel the oppression in the town and I think it took us a couple of days to really understand. The men and women in this town consider it normal to have 1 wife and multiple girlfriends. And they couldn’t understand why we were so opposed to it. Many of them called themselves Christians and when we told them that the Bible explicity forbids adultry and the likes they were amazed. A lot of them had never heard that before.
God is doing something cool in this town. I would love to go back and see what churches get planted in the next year (radio station guy, I’m thinking of you), what bars get closed down (there are over 15 in a small town I heard) and what other changes happen. So if you get a moment to pray for Jorge (radio station), Daniel (a guy we were working with who heard the radio show), Profe’, his sons, Juan and the entire town please do it. The more we fight the spiritual battle, the more we will see the physical results.
/RD
