cuchillo

Congratulations, Mark, on your baptism last night!

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Cor 5.17

February 18th I went with Chi Alpha to Crow Agency, Montana. Crow Agency is on the Crow Indian Reservation. We were going there as a “mini mission.” A mini mission is basically a local service project designed to give college students a feel for what missions are like, but on a smaller scale. Our plan was to help out the local church with whatever we could.

Kenny’s dad is the pastor at the Four Square church in Crow Agency. Kenny used to play guitar for XA, but he moved back to Crow. That’s how we got the connection.

Sometimes when you are on a mission, you get the feeling that you are going there to do great things for the church that they couldn’t do on their own. Like you are going to be this big blessing to them, and boy are they lucky to have people like you coming to help them. I think this a trick to make you start feeling prideful. Also, when you start to think like this I think it can become easier to do damage that the local church is going to have to clean up. You don’t have to stick around and work things out with the people whom you have hurt or offended, but the church will. On this trip, I think we really had to guard against this. Scott even prayed for it the first night. We were there to help with a thing that was already started; just servants.

We got to the church around midnight Friday, set up on the floors, chairs, and tables and went to sleep. Zach and Riley cooked the next morning. Even though they woke up late, everything turned out great. Saturday we spent the day assembling bunk beds, painting, and picking up trash off the church property. We took about four truckloads to the dump.

Later that afternoon Tyler, Kenny, Dan, and I went to Kenny’s uncle Bruster’s house to cut some wood for the sweat lodge. A sweat lodge is a traditional Crow sauna. They do it in other tribes too. You make a fire, throw a bunch of big rocks on it, and once they are superheated, you put them in a pit inside a tent-like structure covered with blankets (they used to use buffalo hides). Then once everyone has stripped and got in, the door is shut and it pitch-black, the pourer (Kenny’s uncle), pours water over the glowing rocks. The steam fills the sweat lodge, and really heats it up. Of course there were separate sweat lodges for guys and girls.

Once we collected a truckload of me-sized logs, we brought them back and made a log-cabin style fire. Bruster started it with a blow-torch. He said, “see what assimilation does to an Indian.” We all had to chuckle. It was great talking to Bruster. They get a lot of mission teams from back East and out of state, and he takes a lot of people to the sweat lodge. Some of them try to be all Indian and stuff. They bring their own sage, and try to make the sweat lodge into the ritual that it may have once been. Bruster says that if he’s not doing all that, why do they feel like you need to?

Sunday, after church, Kenny took some of us up to the mountains. I did not expect it to be as beautiful as it was. It was breathtaking. At the top of the mountain, there was a monument built where a Crow chief from the late 1800s was buried. He was the chief who had gone to Washington to meet with President Grant to find out what was going on with his people. They were dying from the small pox in the blankets given to them by the government.

From there we hiked down to the cliffs overlooking the Little Bighorn River. People still come up to this mountain to pray. It is surprisingly similar to Central Mexico. It was so beautiful; I could have stayed up there all night.

We drove back to Missoula Monday after hanging out in the park for a little while. We were going to do an outreach there, but no one showed up. I think it was because it snowed over night, and who wants to play basketball in the snow?

Overall, it was a beautiful trip. As with every mission I have been on, I was more blessed than those I went there to help. Everyone says that, but that's because it's true.

Well, this is who I was supposed to be, people magazine's sexist man alive. Hollywood just cracks me up sometimes. Since we were dressing up as characters, I decided a haircut was finally in order. So I took my wife's people magazine to Great Clips, and told the hairdress to give me "The Jude Law." She asked if I wanted my hair dyed too, but I didn't think that would be necessary.

This was the first Oscar party I have been to, and I have to say it was fun. I didn't expect to like the show very much, but I really like spending time with friends. Getting to see everyone dressed up was worth it, and the awards weren't too bad. I'll admit it was more exciting than the superbowl. Oh, and I got to try Cory's mead, which was great!

I can't wait to get the photos of Katie. She was the perfect Phantom of the Opera.

And here is a photo of me posing like Jude in the November 29th, 2004 People Magazine. I wish I had the magazine with me for the Oscar night, I could have posed much better. Oh well, enjoy.

Often it is the little things in a relationship that add up to give you the feeling that you are really loved. Husbands and wives know this, as do boyfriends and girlfriends. I know that I can't neglet my wife, and then do something big to try and make it up. Conversely it is all the little things that she does that makes me feel loved. Things like patiently sitting through the movies that I pick out. (I usually really like them, but she rarely does. Well, I guess she liked El Mariachi alright.) Or like how she always says good-bye to me in the morning with a kiss. It all adds up.

I think it is the same way sometimes with God. Now he has done the biggest thing: dying for my sins, and restoring our relationship. Even though that would be more than enough for me to feel loved, he doens't stop with that. Sometimes I just have to stop and admire a beautiful day, or the birds, or the river on my walk back to work from school.

The thing that got me thinking about this was a little thing that happened to me today. I had to come into work today to make up a few hours, and since the courthouse isn't open on Saturdays, my office was locked. Well, I opened the door with my key, left it locked, and sat down at my computer. A few minutes later, I went out the back door into the break room to make a couple of burritos. Then I realized that I left my keys on my desk. Crap! I was locked out. This is so annoying, I'd have to try and find someone to let me back in, and if I couldn't I wouldn't be able to get any work done or even drive home.

I walked around to the front of the office as I was calculating all the senarios, and opened the front door to the office. It was locked, but somehow it didn't shut all the way. Nice. Thanks God! It's the little things.

If you still don't have a gmail account, and would like one, send me an email or post a comment, and I will send you an invitation.

In case you haven't heard about gmail, it is Google's free web-based email. You get 1 GB of storage space (that's about 1000 MB), or four times as much space as hotmail. Also, it has a really nice interface, and no annoying flash ads. Personally, I really like it. You can read more here.

Oh yeah, and you can search your email like you search Google.

Andrew posted the Mexico photos on his server. Check them out and leave comments right on each photo here.

Every week Rocky names someone in the Bible, and Jess and I each make a joke involving that person. So here is last week's:

Q: If your kitchen is Methodist, and your living room is Lutheran, what is the john?

A: Baptist!

Test your US Geography, and try to beat my score!

Click here.

Dan is now famous around the University of Montana campus.

He randomly appears on the UM Homepage, or you can find the article here.

Happy 31st to my wonderful wife!

Я люблю мою жену.

We left the hotel in El Paso around nine I think. We had a lot planned for the day, since we wanted to get to Cuauhtémoc that evening. Our first stop was the Mexican insurance place. After giving them all the information they needed, we found out that we couldn’t pay with the VISA, so we went for a little walk around town to find an ATM. It was harder than you would think, but we saw a tall bank from the distance so we headed that way. I was surprised. Walking around El Paso, you would think that you were already in Mexico. There were streets with all the store fronts written in Spanish, and most of the people looked Mexican. There really is a lot of culture in the United States.

After paying for the insurance, we found a border crossing and drove into Juarez. Getting through Juarez was surprisingly easy, and before long we were on the highway. We had to stop somewhere around fifty miles into the country to go through customs. It’s kind of funny that they don’t have it on the border, but I guess it’s near the border.

Going through customs was an experience. I’m glad we had Dan with us, since he had been through it before and knew what to do. Everything was in Spanish. There were no signs in English. The only thing in English was one paper that we had to fill out. I think U.S. customs is a little bit different. I seem to remember seeing signs with four or five languages written on them. We had to get visas and a temporary import permit for the car. We had to pay for the temporary import permit there, but you have to go to a bank within a couple days and pay for the visas. Weird. Once we got the paperwork done we had to drive through a checkpoint. The guard only spoke Spanish with us, and he was hard to understand because he had a pretty thick accent. I think he was messing with us. He asked us if we spoke Spanish, and then if we spoke Japanese or French. I wish he would have asked if we spoke Russian or Chinese. Dan and I could have had some fun with him. It’s probably better that he didn’t.

After the two-hour or so delay going through customs we were back on the highway. It was nice; much nicer than I expected Mexican roads to be. It was about like an interstate here in the U.S. We were driving on what they called the Ruta de Paizanos. Paizanos are Mexicans who Emigrated to the U.S., and are coming back to visit. There was a brochure for them at customs with a forward from Vicente Fox and everything. I think they are an important part of the Mexican economy, but I’m not an economist.

Before getting to Chihuahua, we stopped at a road-side burrito and Quesadilla stand. Man that was some good Mexican food.

We had hoped to get to Cuauhtémoc by six p.m., because Dan says the police stop patrolling the highways at six, and we didn’t want to be targets for bandits. We didn’t even reach Chihuahua by six, but I think it was okay. We were on toll roads, and before we left Luis at Fiesta en Jalisco (the Mexican restaurant in Missoula) told me that it’s not like it used to be. It is much safer to drive in Mexico nowadays.

Driving through Chihuahua was as surprisingly easy, and even easier than driving through Juarez. We were on the highway the whole time. It wasn’t like that the last two years Dan had come down. There were all kinds of businesses there that you see in the U.S. like Home Depot.

I forget what time we got into Cuauhtémoc that evening. I think it was around eleven, but we went to the Hotel San Francisco. We got a room with three double beds and three breakfasts for around $20 a night. It was another long, but good day. We decided to call Mike the Missionary in the morning, and just crash for the evening.

Well, we got in another game of Russian Scrabble the other night. Jess wasn't able to play this time, so it was just Jamey, Tim, and I. Tim was in my Russian class last semester. He's a pretty cool guy, and this was the first time he came to play. We keep trying to get his girlfiend to come play with us. She speaks Russian because she is from Belarus.

The Florence hotel lobby is a really cool place to play. I think it is relatively unknown. The hotel was built way back in the 1800s, but burnt down in 1937. Then they rebuilt it, and recently they just renovated it again. It is a pretty classy place, and they sell coffee. However I think the coffee stand closes at five or something. So it wasn't open while were there from eight to ten. I don't think we would have normally been able to get into the lobby, but there was someone cleaning the glass doors, and she let us in.

Later on, Jess stopped by with her friend Beth. Just to say hi for a couple of minutes. Overall, it was a pretty cool evening in a pretty neat place.

And now for some more Russian-Spanish cognates (sorry these might not be as interesting):
  папа = papa
  мама = mama
  интересный = interesante

Okay, well someone is named The Skirt,
Twice called Dress, but her feelings weren't hurt.
She knew how to make rhymes,
And read them sometimes.
And when Katie left town she drove Mert.

If you want to ask someone when he was born, you say "В каком году ты родился?" If you want to ask a girl you say "В каком году ты родилась?" Translated more literally it is, "In which year were you born?"

Note that you use prepositional case here with В, and that год goes to году in prepostional case.

When answering, you need to use masculine ordinal numbers in prepositional case. So to say you were born in 1979 you would say, "Я родился в тысяча девятьсот семьдесят девятом году." This is like saying "I was born in the one thousand, nine hundred, seventy nineth year."

Я родился в тысяча девятьсот семьдесят девятом году. В каком году ты родился?

And now for Russian-Spanish cognates.

Here is the false cognate of the day:
  собор ≠ sabor
  собор = catedral

And a real cognate:
  симпатичный = simpático

Note that neither симпатичный nor simpático mean sympathetic in English.

Well, so the last poem wasn't technically a limerick. Here is a rehashed version:

There once was a woman named Jess.
Whose real name was Spanish for dress.
Well, she could speak Slovak,
And thought that gypsies rock.
In Europe, Greta she did bless.

Happy Birthday Katie!

That's my wife Shannon on the right.

There once was a girl named Jess,
Who went by the name of Dress.
She happened to speak Slovak,
And thought Gypsies rock,
And so she saw Gretta each year.

Well, it was a good first day. It was a bit longer than we had hoped, but still not bad. We got up early, like eight or something, and our goal was to make it to El Paso or Juarez. We kind of wanted to stay the night in Mexico, so we were hoping to make it to Juarez. The travel book of Dan’s said that most people would remain oblivious to the drug trade that was going on all around them in Juarez, but listed a few hotels with “a professional” staff. I guess that was a good thing.

We remembered to take that right back at Albuquerque, but around a town called Los Lunas the brakes started to make an awful noise. It began to happen just when you would brake, but before too long it was happening even when the brakes weren’t on. I thought that it was probably that the brake pads were worn, and the little squeak bar was rubbing on the rotor, so we decided to stop and check it out. It was about six o’clock and we didn’t see a Midas or anything, so we just found the local AutoZone, and worked on it in the parking lot. This was kind of annoying, but these things happen. I just hoped that it wasn’t going to take too much time that we could otherwise be spending in Mexico.

After buying new brakes and some tools that we would need, we jacked up the front driver’s side. I broke off a couple of the lug bolts before I managed to remove the wheel. (Stupid mechanics with air guns) Sure enough the brakes were shot, but Andrew had just got them replaced a couple years ago. Brakes don’t wear out that quick, do they? Well, no they don’t. The brake caliper was seized, and the brakes were being applied all the time on that wheel, so they wore out prematurely. The other side was fine. Thanks to the fine team at AutoZone we figured that one out. Luckily they had a caliper for the Gallant in stock too. So we bought it and some jack stands, and we borrowed some Vise Grip pliers to pinch off the brake line. Oh yeah, and some new lug bolts.

After only three hours, we had the car back together, and we were ready to roll. We bought the guys at AutoZone a six pack of Corona, for all their help. They had even offered to stay after the store closed.

We made it to El Paso at around two a.m. We would have crossed over to Juarez, but we couldn’t find an insurance place open that late. I had heard there we some, we just couldn’t find any. So we found a hotel in El Paso, and crashed for the night. It was another long day, and I still had that annoying cold I left Montana with, but the border was right across town. We were all excited.

Sure you could buy a Russian Scrabble board off of ebay if you're patient, and want to drop thirty bucks on a cardboard game. A much better option is to build one yourself out of wood, and have Jamey paint it with her mad skills.

I found out which letters we would need here. Then I cut them from a strip of oak, sanded them, and gave them to Jamey to paint. Then, I just put together a board mostly from some left over lumber, and gave that to Jamey to paint too. A couple of days later, we were playing.

We tested out this beautiful board last Wednesday in a no-points game, and it worked great. Of the seven people who where interested in playing, Jess, Jamey, and I were the only ones to show up. We each laid down a word almost every turn. Of course, we were playing with racks of nine letters to make it a little easier, but still.

Well, since I got back from Mexico over a week ago now, I thought that I should start to write about it before I forget anymore details.

My friend Dan has been going down to Cuauhtémoc, Mexico, for the last few years. Cuauhtemoc is about an hour west of Chihuahua, which is about two and half hours south of El Paso, Texas (if you don't count going through immigration). Dan said that he originally went there because he had just taken a bunch of Spanish, and wanted to drive to somewhere in Mexico that was not too much of a tourist town. So after he and Dave got back last year, he invited me to go with him in 2005, and that's how this trip began.

From the beginning the plan was to not have too much of a plan. It would be enough fun just being there. However, we thought that it would be fun to hook up with a missionary in the area, so before we left, I sent an email to the Assemblies of God director of missions in Mexico, and he forwarded my email to Mike Hadinger, a missionary near Cuauhtemoc. I got a reply from Mike, and he said that he'd love to meet us and show us his ministry sites if we had time. So we decided to plan on calling him when we got down there.

Dan and I met Jess, Rocky, and Peter for breakfast at Ruby's before hitting the road Friday morning. It was great; they prayed for us. We ended up getting out of town about a half-hour late, but that was okay since we planned in some buffer time. We were going to meet Andrew in Pocatello, Idaho, and then the three of us would drive to Moab, Utah, and spend the night at the Silvertip Motel.

Well, the roads weren't too great outside of Missoula. Like ice really, and right before Rock Creek traffic on the freeway was completely stopped. There were cars bumper to bumper as far ahead as we could see. While we were sitting there a trucker hopped out of his truck and came to talk to us. He was hauling frozen carrots. He said that there was a three truck pile-up that was stopping traffic. Truckers are cool. I think it must get lonely on the road though, because he talked to us for about forty-five minutes or so. The roads were so bad that he was just going to head back to Missoula and wait a day for them to clean them up before trying to drive them. We waited there about two hours.

Once we got a little farther away from Missoula the roads began to clear up. However, we passed by a car that had spun off the freeway and stopped in a snow bank in the median. There was someone in it, so we made the quick decision to stop and see if he needed help. He had been waiting a while for a tow truck that another passer-by had called, so we asked him if he wanted to be pulled out. Dan always carries a tow rope in the Suburban. He was glad to get pulled out, and we managed not to not tear up his car or get hit by anyone else in the process.

Well after all that delay, we thought for sure that Andrew would be waiting for us in Pocatello. He lives in Boise, and it is only about a three hour drive for him to get to Pocatello. We pulled into the Super Walmart parking lot in Pocatello, and I gave him a call. He had trouble getting out of Boise, but he was just getting off the exit to Pocatello. He arrived about five minutes after we did. Nice timing. We parked the Suburban at Walmart, and took off to Moab.

After a very clear and nice drive, we pulled in to the Silvertip around 11:00 p.m.