Time to butcher the pig (flu)

Seriously, this hype about the Mexican swine flu has got to stop.  It appears to be less vicious than a regular cold.  You’d be lucky if you get anything more than a day off work with this bug.

But yet, Jared and Chelsey’s school was cancelled today along with EVERY OTHER SCHOOL in Mexico.  When have you ever seen every school closed in Canada due to a sickness?  They didn’t do it with SARS.  Jared’s soccer practices all got cancelled as well.  And oh ya.  That really awesome trip Jared and I were going to take to Pachuca to see a pro soccer game, meet the players, get a bunch of tours, etc.  IT GOT CANCELLED TOO.  Man, it’s a little annoying.  Can you tell?

There is nothing to worry about with the stupid swine flu. (we do appreciate the fact that some people did email us because they were concerned.  It’s nice to know people care!)

But other than that, there is nothing going on around here.  We’re essentially just playing the time out, getting ready to head back to Airdrie in a couple of weeks.  We’re already 50% packed with the remaining items being mostly stuff we need to live without going to restaurants and wearing the same clothes for two weeks.

The kids have made a couple of new friends down the road and have spent hours playing with them.  And two major benefits of this are that they are getting even more Spanish practice and Michelle and I are getting even more time with them gone!

Katria is full on into potty training.  She’s doing pretty good and overall has perfect days (when not asleep, but who among us can say we’re perfect then?).  We also discovered that she started teething, again.  Wow, Mexico sure can pull teeth out on kids.  They should market that.  Where is the media overhype on that, huh?

Michelle has pretty much just been enjoying having me around most of the time (can you blame her?).  She no longers feels lonely and lost because I am gone.  I mean, she’s been having “fun” packing and potty training.  And also having opportunities to go for ice cream a bit more with friends.  And if you’ve ever been down here, you know what an event it is to get ice cream in Tlaxiaco!

I have mostly finished Global Frontier Missions’ new web site.  You can see it at http://www.globalfrontiermissions.us.  And since we had some free time still, I have now started designing the new website for http://www.shorttermmissionstrips.com.  I hope to have something up there in a couple of days.  Stay tuned…

For those that haven’t heard, or those that heard and forgot, we will all be back in Airdrie in the middle of May.  Michelle and Katria fly into Calgary on May 14, and I think they would love to have lots of people there to greet them and carry luggage.  Email Michelle if you want the flight details.  Chelsey, Jared and me drive out of Tlaxiaco on May 13 and should be home on May 19.  (I had been telling people May 20 but it was recently discovered that I cannot do math.)  So if anyone wants to line Highway 2 with “Welcome Home!” banners, please feel free.

Please continue to pray for our preparations for coming home.  We have limited space in the van to bring our stuff home, so we’ll need wisdom in packing.  We have plenty of financial support to make it home (Praise the Lord and thanks to all who have given!), but we do need prayers for our financial needs once we are “off the mission field”  (even though no Christian should ever be off the field) as the gifts given through our church cannot be used to buy us food and other needs once we are home.  We are completely trusting in God to provide for us, and can’t wait to talk about how everything we needed showed up on time.

Please also pray for me as I go back to work the week following getting back to Canada.  I know this isn’t the smartest thing as all people who have lived out of the country need at least a couple of weeks to reenter their old culture and deal with reverse culture shock (which is actually more difficult to deal with than the inital culture shock of moving to a new country), but the financial issues described above make it necessary to get right back and earning a pay cheque.  I’m so thankful that I have an awesome boss and an awesome company who allowed me to come right back.

We hope we can get in touch with all of our supporters once we get back.  There were so many and we hope to personally thank all of you.  Please be patient with us as we try to do that!

Thanks

Ryan, Michelle, Chelsey, Jared and Katria